iimm 



illiilii 



i 



M 




ilil 



iiil 




DiSiM 



^ -<. 



o 






A\ .. s^ O ,, -/-- 



^^ 



■: = x^ 


cl> 


>- ~^'' 


- — > 




^ "^ 


S / ^ ^^^^ <> rS^ 




c- ^ 


^-^^ ^0.0^ <,0^ ^ 




^^' 


■, --^V V^> S-- ^ 




' c- 


',^ .x^' ^ 




' y. 


/: '% ^ -^:: 










,\- 




oiV 






.^^>^^:.^ % .^- 






-V 



X - ^ ' * , %. 



-X' . 



■^/ ' 








'o'-' 


/ c- 


X' 


* -^ 






z 


* ,.X' ^' 


^ 


N - V 




^ • o 


y 


♦n \ \ f, , 


~^^ 


-0- X ■ ,: ^ 


; ^:^ 






^\ 



\" 




o 0' 









*"^ 






^.,^ 










^ <> -^'^■^. \c 



■-^ 



co^ 



s^ 



A 



- 


v^^ 


^^ 


r ^^^ 
^ ^ 


■- . x^^ 


^ct 


To ^ "^<,0^ 






,%;-- 
'f^ 
\ '•"■f 







.V . 



x<^-^ % 



^ <X 






o 



/. C' X 



/■ 



r> -y 













xO o. 



;V'-^ 



oo' 






. a"" 



^rn 




«, » -. 









^\' c 



o 0^ 




sC/^^ -^ 



K^ V 



^«^ 




-0- X 









^ ^ ^ .^ . ^ 



,0 o 





.^^■ 


^v 








■"c. 0^ 










"^C^ 


^ -^ 


. 








,0 



V . . 




%, 



^# 



■^. ,^^' 






^' -.. 



^ V. 



\\ . -^ C' '/-■ 






.^■^- 



^' .•^ 






o 0' 






^' V 






'\^ 



<^' ' - ' ' , 



o\ 






.0- 



'-^^^^'^^^ ^Si'^ 






.o< 



■-^ 






.^ cr- 



■^ ■' ? 1 \ - yN 



-S^^' 

• o 



-^^ 






J ,^-% 



0.,-^ <\ 



-^z. O^^ 



^0' 



^-^ 



^C^x" .^^' 



•0- ^-^^ 



v^^: 



,• e-%'^ 









A^'^' 



\' -r-. 






,0 c-. 






<^' y\J^_'> '^. 






.0 c 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/onwingthrougheurOOsess 



ON THE WING THROUGH EUROPE. 



ON THE WING 



THROUGH EUROPE, 



V:^ 



BUSINESS MAN. 



COLUMBUS, OHI.O: 

H. W. DERBY & CO. 



Copyright, 1880, by 
F. C. Sessions. 



ITHB LIBRARY I 

OF CONGRESS 

|WA8H1NOT0£ 



Press of Francis Hart & Co. New- York. 



^o^n 



J/edicatiOH. 



q) zSeivcate im& dDcok io mu de 



laz vune 



w 



ax^ 



^1 



ul qocd itomavv and izne, 

Luiijoae nofeie ana &el|-dactv|icina apviit ojaeuca ifae wiau 

Q^ox 'hez nu&\^ana io ttair-ei atioaa loz a |em aciiqfoilui wontfej 

cJ'oz zedi and ^ecv^peratlon qteauu needed, 

(Sfoeetiiiilu ^:akvna wpciv iDetsell 

exit ine caze^ ana zei>iponii\b\iihe» oi 'laouie, 

Cwat -foe iniqfot ■l?e l^eneuled and 

OlCade laaiapai. 



CONTENTS. 



Letter I. Page i. 

Across the Deep .... Queenstown, Cork, and Blarney Castle 

An Irish Cattle Fair. . . .How the Irish Peasant Lives. . . . 
Lakes of Killarney. 

Letter II. Page i8. 

Parting Glimpses of the Emerald Isle. .. .Cathedral Restora- 
tion . . . Welsh Scenery . . . Llanberis . . . Snowdon . . . Chester 
Cathedral. . . .Eaton Hall. . . .The Hotels. . . .Railways. 



Letter III. Page 35. 

The English Lakes and Homes of the Poets .... Ayr and Robert 
Burns .... Glasgow : Its Working People, Open Air Serv- 
ices on Sunday, the Old Cathedral .... Ship-yards on the 
Clyde. . . .Inverness. . . .Glencoe. . . .Loch Ness. 

Letter IV. Page 52. 

Visit to the Hebrides The Tradition of " Lady Rock " 

Castle of the " Lord of the Isles "... .Fingal's Cave. . . . 
lona and Saint Columba. . . .Reflections. 



viii Co7itents. 

Letter V. Page d^i- 

The Trossachs Perth Edinburgh Melrose Abbey 

York and its Cathedral .... Cambridge and its Univer- 
sity .... Notes and Incidents. 

Letter VI. Page 8o. 

First View of London .... The American Minister. .. .West- 
minster Abbey and Tombs of the Poets .... Houses of 

Parliament and Buckingham Palace English Equipages 

and Pubhc Parks. 

Letter VIL Page 84. 

London Tower .... Kew Gardens .... The National Gallery .... 
A Royal Display and Garden Fete.... The Queen's Sta- 
bles .... The London Slums .... The Pulpit Orators of 
London .... Curiosities at Kensington Museum. .. .Envi- 
rons of London .... Royal Academy Bank of England. 

Letter VIII. Page 105. 

Eminent British Divines * . . . . Punshon. . . . Pulsford. . . . Wilber- 
force. 

Letter IX. Page 119. 
Dr. Joseph Parker .... Dr. John Gumming. . . . Canon Farrar .... 
Dean Stanley .... Charles H. Spurgeon. 

Letter X. Page 135. 

From London to Paris .... First Impressions of the French 
Metropolis .... The Second Great Exposition .... The Tuil- 
eries, the Trocadero, and Surroundings .... America's Edu- 
cational Exhibit. .. .Columbus in the Great Exposition. 



Conte7its. ' ix 

Letter XI. Page 149. 

Fine Art Department of the Exposition. . . .Notable Works by 
American Artists. .. .Art as an Educator. .. .Paris and 
Philadelphia. . . .Hotel Life. . . .The French Sabbath. 

Letter XIL Page 157. 

From Paris to Lucerne .... Lake of the Four Forest Can- 
tons. . . .Ascent of the Rigi ; Scenes at Sunset and Sunrise; 
the Ranz des Vaches. . . .Fliielen. . . .Home of Tell. . . . St. 
Gothard Pass .... Glacier du Rhone. .. .The Hanseck.... 
Sunday at Literlaken. 

Letter XIII. Page 174. 

Description of the Swiss Capital. . . ..Geneva and its Historic 
Associations .... Lovely Lake Leman .... The Vale of Cha- 
mouni .... Mer de Glace .... Over the Simplon Pass .... 
Farewell to Switzerland. 

Letter XIV. Page 184. 

Sunny Italy. . . .Lago Maggiore and the Borromean Islands. , . . 
Milan and its Cathedral .... The City of Palaces .... Mon- 
ument to Columbus .... Pisa : the Campo Santo, Duomo 
and Leaning Tower. . . .Rome : Festival of the Assumption 
of the Virgin : St. Peter's, the Vatican, and their Art 
Treasures. 

Letter XV. Page 199. 

Reminiscences of Rome. . . .The Coliseum. . . .Ancient Baths aiid 
Catacombs . . . .The Quirinal. . . . Bay and City of Naples .... 
Ascent of Vesuvius .... Pompeii and its Wonders .... Off 
for New Scenes. 



X Contents. 

Letter XVI. Page 214. 

Florence, the City of Palaces .... The Duomo and Campa- 
nile Art Collections at the Uffizzi Palace The Studio 

of Powers. ..." The Bride of the Sea.". . . .A Gondola 
Trip through Venice .... Palace of the Doges, San Marco 

and Clock Tower Piazza of St. Mark Evening 

Recreations. 

Letter XVIL Page 226. 

The Old Amphitheater at Verona Departure from Italy 

Trent German Homelikeness Munich The Pin- 

akothek Famous Americans in Bronze The Great 

Breweries Use of Stimulants A Novel Species of 

Morgue .... Famous Cemeteries of Europe. .. .Heidelberg 
and its Students. 

Letter XVIII. Page 240.. 

Degradation of the Female Peasantry on the Continent. . . . 
A Sunday in Heidelberg .... The Old Castle and the Uni- 
versity. . . .A Land of Plenty. . . Frankfort-on-the-Main. . . . 
The ludengasse .... Antiquities of the City .... Down the 

Rhine .... Cologne and its Cathedral Thoughts upon 

Art. 

Letter XIX. Page 253. 

Amsterdam : its External Features, Industries, Galleries of Art 
and Banking Houses .... Haarlem and its Flower Gar- 
dens. . . -Leyden and the " Pilgrim Fathers "... .Royal 
Marriage Fete at the Hague .... Antwerp : its Cathedral 
and Art Treasures .... Brussels : its Hotel de Ville, Lace- 
makers and Milk-carriers .... Return to Paris .... Our Rep- 
resentatives Abroad. 



Cojiteiits. XI 

Letter XX. Page 273. 

Paris Workingmen .... Their Social Character .... Pecuharities 
of Domestic Life . . . National Faults and their Origin .... 
Sunday as a Holiday .... Musical Societies; their Popu- 
larity and Management. 

Letter XXI. Page 281. 

Stratford-upon-Avon .... Shakespeare's House .... Relics of the 
Poet still existing. .. .Tomb and Epitaph in the Church 
of the Holy Trinity. 

Letter XXII. Page 290. 

Conclusion : On the Atlantic .... Thoughts of Home. 



Appendix. Page 298. 
Letter from a Niece of Robert Burns .... An Unpublished 
Letter of the Poet. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Letter Page 

c Blarney Castle. . . .Irish Jaunting-car 8 

(. Lake of Killarney 15 

II. . . .Old Palace, or Derby- House, Chester. ... 27 

III Home of Wordsworth, Rydal Mount 36 

IV lONA Cathedral 57 

VI. . . .Westminster Abbey 81 

VII Houses of Parliament 82 

c Dean Stanley 125 

Rev. C. H. Spurgeon 129 

X . . . . The Trocadero 140 

XII vSUMMIT of the RiGI VlTZNAU l6l 

XIII Crossing the Mer de Glace 180 

XIV Milan Cathedral 186 

XV. . . . Bay of Naples and Vesuvius 204 

XVI St. Mark's Place, Venice 220 

XVIII Heidelberg Castle 242 

XIX Milk Vender at Brussels 265 

XXI .... Shakespeare's Birthplace 285 



IX, ^ 



PREFACE, 

yt T the una7iimous request of the Young Men's 
-^^^ Christian Associatio7i of this city, given i?i the 
cordial and friendly letter printed below, the writer 
was induced to prepai^e this account of his visit to the 
Old World. For the long delay in responding to 
their most complinie?itary 7-equest, he can only say most 
frankly that other pressifig avocations have hitherto 
barred the way to a task which he has 7iow gladly 
e7ideavored to fulfill : 

F. C. Sessions, Esq. : 

Dear Sir : — We have bee7i dii'ected by the Yotmg 
Me7i's Clu'istian Association, of this city, to 7'equest 
you to prepare a7id ar7'ange for publicatio7i the result 
of your observations and experie/ices in your 7'ecent 
t7^avels i7i Europe. 

Your lette7's to the press while abse7it attracted very 
general atte7ition, and lead us to believe that they are 



xiv Preface. 

luorthy to be put in a more extended and pei^maiieiit 
form. The Association will cheerfully accept a book 
in such form as your judgment and taste shall dictate., 
and assume the responsibility of such a circulation in 
this and other cities as we are confident it will merit. 
Permit us to assure you that we not only express a 
unanimous wish of the Association^ but also that of a 
wide circle of friefids. 

Fraternally yours, 

Geo. H. Twiss, 
W. Y. Miles. 

Committee of V. M. C. A. 
Wm. G. Dunn, President. 

Columbus, Ohio, November, 1878. 



Messrs. Geo. H. Twiss and W. Y. Miles: 

Gentlemen: — Allow me to thank you for the kind 
and flattering request of the Young Men^s Christia?i 
Association to pj^epare for publication the result of my 
observations during my European tour. As soon as 
my pressing business demands will admit, I will en- 
deavor to comply with your wishes, — not because 1 am 
vain enough to believe t/iat my book ivill possess any- 
thing deserving a place among the valuable works 
written by professional men traversing the same 



Preface. xv 

ground., but more with the hope of aiding fijiajicially 
so valuable and worthy an association., which is doing 
so much for the young men of our city., in whose wel- 
fare I feel so deep a?t i?iterest. It is this that induces 
me to venture before the public, regardless of criticism. 
A book of travels by a business man. will at least be 
a novelty, and may attract the attention of business 
men. 

Francis C. Sessions. 



/ take with pleasure this opportunity^ to acknowledge 
my g?'eat indebtedness to my pastor., Rev. R. G. Hutch- 
ins, D. £>., of the First Congregational Church of 
this city, the genial companion of my travels. The 
experience of Dr. Hutchins as a traveler abj'oad, his 
intelligent mappi?ig-out of our route, and the friendly 
hitei'est he ma?tifested in endeavori?ig to have me see 
all that was itiost noteworthy, afforded me not only 
great pleasure and content, but also furnished opportu- 
nities of Ideally enjoying the idmost possible in the 
somewhat limited peiiod of our tour. Aliuays happy 
and joyful himself, he made this journey to me equally 
pleasant and instructive, and the memory of it unll 
remain, like all things of beauty, "■ a joy forever ^ 



xvi Preface. 

And here let me add one further word of acknowl- 
edgment i?i regard to his two interesting letters on 
" Enwient English Divines^' which give, I cannot 
hut feel, a greater value to my work, and which, I 
am siwe, my readers will peruse with a pleasure equal 
to my own. 

I am also greatly indebted to Mr. William M, 
Briggs^ of Neiv York, for the taste and discretion 
shown in supervising this little work while in process 
of publication. 




INTRODUCTION. 

THE letters contained in this volume were written 
hastily for the Daily Ohio State Jour?ial, of 
Columbus, as I could catch a moment's time on the 
cars, or while stopping for rest during the intervals 
of travel and sight-seeing. I had no expectation 
that they would be received with so much favor, 
and I cannot but think that the words of apprecia- 
tion so often addressed to me come from over-par- 
tial friendSp and that, on the other hand, I have not 
heard the criticisms of those less favorably impressed. 

It has often occurred to me that many, while 
traveling abroad, do not derive that instruction and 
entertainment which they might, and fail to have 
their interest sufficiently awakened in the novel and 
lovely scenes through which they are passing, because 
they have not, by previous preparation, informed 
themselves of the countries and peoples which they 

I? 



xviii IntroductioJi. 

were to visit. Thus, not properly prepared either to 
appreciate or understand them, they consequently 
bring back, when they return, but little beyond a 
mere collection of isolated facts and inadequate im- 
pressions of all that should have enriched their future 
lives, to the benefit of themselves and of their 
friends. Nothing, it appears to me, can impart such 
healthy vigor to body and mind, through agreeable 
exercise and continuous change of scene, as travel; 
and nothing, perhaps, Avithin the range of moderate 
expenditure, can confer so rich a fund of knowledge 
to the intelligent observer as the conclusions deduced 
from a personal and faithful study of the govern- 
ments, manners, customs and institutions of the peo- 
ples visited. 

An American needs to learn that his countrymen 
do not monopolize all the intelligence and enterprise 
of the world; but still, as a close observer, he may 
honestly return, notwithstanding the many novel and 
excellent usages he encounters abroad, with a greater 
admiration of his own country and its republican 
government and institutions, where every man, be he 
ever so poor, has an opportunity to rise to opulence 
and influence, according as he makes himself their 



Introdtictioii. xix 

rightful possessor through industry, education, and 
earnestness and honesty of purpose. Too often Amer- 
icans are overweening in their national pride, and 
imagine that they have nothing to learn from the 
mother-land; but they should remember that her 
great age and experience count something in the 
scale, and that at least we can there gather what 
things are best, and what things safest to avoid. 
Moreover, they should never forget that we have 
an interest and common stock in the literature and 
science which come to us from our transatlantic 
ancestors, and that we are naturally affiliated to 
them in all noble efforts and aspirations. 

I have tried to give in my letters life-like pictures 
and various reflections upon what I saw abroad; 
these may seem commonplace, perhaps, to older 
travelers, but my excuse may be pleaded in a remark 
made by a certain friend, viz.: " Your letters con- 
tain observations upon common matters which most 
travelers omit," — which, indeed, I hope may prove 
true. 

Many there are who, in traveling abroad, have 
some special object in view in which they are wholly 
absorbed, and which almost exclusively occupies 



XX Introductio7t. 

their letters, but fails to interest the general reader, 
leaving him uninformed upon those common points 
which are of the most pertinent interest, and about 
which almost every one wishes to know. Trusting 
that the perusal of this volume may supply informa- 
tion perhaps often found wanting in works of more 
pretentious effort, and hoping it may prove a pleas- 
ure to the reader, as its writing was to the author, 
— a happy record of rare enjoyment amid novel 
scenes in those lands from which we or our ances- 
tors came, — I submit it to the friends who have re- 
quested it, and to such others as may read it, with 
confidence that those critically disposed will remem- 
ber that it was written with the earnest purpose of 
conveying genuine impressions, and that it is not 
assumed to be altogether free from faults and minor 
errors. F. C. S. 




ON THE WING THROUGH EUROPE. 



I. 



Across the Deep. . , .Queenstown, Cork and Blarney 
Castle. . . .An Irish Cattle Fair. . . .How the Irish 
Peasant Lives. , . .Lakes of Killarney. 



Glcngariff, Ireland. 

IT has been the dream of my Hfe to visit the 
Old World. Everybody does so nowadays. 
" Going to Europe ? " says a friend, " truly, it is not 
much of an event now." We were only eight days 
in crossing the ocean in the City of Berlin, a splendid 
floating palace five hundred and twenty-five feet long 
by forty-five feet beam, and thirty-six feet deep, indi- 
cating five hundred horse-power, and steaming sixteen 
knots an hour. She is the largest steamship afloat. 



2 0)1 the Steajner City of Berlin. 

except the Great Eastern^ and is nearly as long as the 
distance from Broad to State Street in front of our 
Ohio State House, at Columbus — the latest and most 
commodious form of ocean traveling to be found ; she 
is supplied with steam by twelve boilers, w^hich are 
heated by thirty-six furnaces, ample means being 
adopted to insure ventilation in the furnace-room, and, 
indeed, in every part of the vessel, and the boilers are 
so arranged that any of them can be cut off. There are 
accommodations for seventeen hundred passengers, and 
a crew of one hundred and fifty. She is a naval man- 
sion. In our state-room, which is eight and a half feet 
long, the same measure in width, and seven feet four 
inches high, are a sofa and two berths. While con- 
versing with an officer in regard to the excellent 
arrangements for washing, he informed me that there 
are between three and four miles of lead-pipe in the 
vessel. We had a smooth sea all the way over except 
the first day, when nearly every one was sick. I asked 
a sailor, " Do you call this a smooth sea or a rough 
one ? " He replied : " Smooth — only a nasty swell," 
which we were all realizing. I lost only one meal 
during the entire voyage, and consequently found it 
delightful. Every morning a salt-water bath, in marble 



Amusements of the Passengers. 3 

bath-rooms, supplied with hot and cold water, could be 
enjoyed; whilst the eating and drinking — in fact the 
entire me7m — was all that a hungry voyager could 
desire. One of the pleasures on board was to examine 
the novelties of the ship, and promenade the long 
upper and lower decks. '*■ 

There were passengers from all parts of the world, 
many of our own States being represented — -Ohio 
sending in her quota from Cincinnati, Springfield, 
Dayton, Cleveland and Columbus. Doctors of divinity, 
doctors of the law and of medicine, presidents and 
professors of colleges with their families, men of busi- 
ness, lawyers — indeed every class w^as there present. 
Various amusements filled up the leisure hours — lect- 
ures, concerts, reading and recitations, quoits,, shovel- 
board, chess (and too much card-playing). Dr. Gregory, - 
President of Ilhnois University, read a paper on 
" Antagonism of Labor and Capital," and Mrs^ Lippin- 
cott (Grace Greenwood) recited admirably several 
pieces, and her only daughter sang Scotch and French 
ballads in a voice whose sweetness delighted all. She 
is going to London to cultivate her musical talent, 
which already gives indication of a successful future. 
We have a promise that at some coming time both 



4 Days of Anxiety on the Sea. 

mother and daughter will visit Columbus, and furnish 
us an opportunity for enjoying their charming readings, 
recitations and music. Mrs. Lippincott remembers her 
former visits to our capital with pleasure. With hair 
just flecked with gray, and with her large black eyes 
intelligent as ever, she seems hardly to have grown 
older. She has the same depreciation of herself, as 
one never having accomplished anything in the world 
on account of having been obliged always to write for 
a living, seeming to forget her ardent labors in behalf 
of all good moral causes — antislavery, temperance 
and others. In her recitations and readings she seems 
to have laid aside the elocutionist, and appears natural 
and easy. 

We started from New York with three other steam- 
ships, so that the scene down the bay was an exciting 
one; but, soon leaving them out of sight, we sped 
on our voyage, and arrived in just eight days at 
Queenstown. The days of most anxiety were those in 
which the dense fogs off the banks of New Foundland 
enshrouded the ship in impenetrable mist. For parts 
of two days and nights the fog-whistle was blown 
every few minutes, and at times I would awake, the 
whistle impressing me for the moment that we were 



First View of the Old World. 5 

just sweeping into some station on a sleeping-car, but 
soon enough I would realize that we were in the 
midst of the troubled deep. A clergyman, being called 
upon to preach on board, talked a great deal about the 
dangers of the sea. The waves were dashing wildly 
against the ship, and he said that " there was only a 
thin board between us and eternity." At this the stew- 
ard exclaimed, quickly : " Thank God, it is a thick 
plank ! " He uttered a sentiment that acccomplished 
more good than the former. 

As we approach land, how our hearts thrill at the 
first sight of that Old World of history and long 
renown, so different in every respect from the New, 
We first see the headlands and mountains of Kerry, 
on the extreme south-westerly point of Ireland, between 
Bantry Bay on the south and Kenmare Bay on the 
north. Probably more voyagers from the western 
world have greeted Europe at these little points of view 
than in any other locality. Our vessel was met by a 
steam-tender, and the passengers who intended to land 
for Ireland were, with the European mails, transferred 
to the latter, which steamed up the beautiful harbor to 
Queenstown — formerly the old " Cove of Cork," but 
whose present name is in honor of the Queen's visit, 



6 Queenstown and Cork, 

made some fifteen or twenty years ago. The city lies 
at the west of the harbor on a side-hill, and as we 
approach it from the ocean, with a bright sun shining 
upon it, with the shipping around us in every direction, 
w^e exclaim, " What a picturesque, beautiful view !" 
and we feel well prepared to enjoy it after our ocean 
sail. The beautiful River Lee sweeps round behind 
it, south-westwardly, to the city of Cork, about twelve 
miles distant. Here we remained overnight, and 
attended Sabbath evening service at a small Methodist 
church, where we heard the congregation sing the 
same hymns and offer prayers as at home. Doctor 
H s made a few remarks on the oneness and fellow- 
ship of all followers of Christ, while bringing to them 
the greetings of Christians in America. 

Here we begin to notice the high, thick walls 
around the residences of the rich, with entrances 
locked — " where the rich are fenced in and the poor 
out." Our sail the next morning up the River Lee, 
in a little open steamer, was one of the most enchant- 
ing of my life. On either side the hills are dotted 
with beautiful dwellings which are surrounded by 
dense foliage, and every little while one is surprised 
by the glimpse of some fine architectural villa peep- 



Ma7iiifactiiring Industries. 7 

ing through the trees. We passed Black Rock, 
whence WilHam Penn, driven out of England, emi- 
grated to America. Also, we saw a minaret or tower, 
erected in honor of the kind reception given to Father 
Mathew by Americans. I had the pleasure of meet- 
ing on the boat an intelHgent Irish merchant from 
Cork, who gave me much information about the coun- 
try, and pointed out the objects of interest. Most of 
these beautiful homes are occupied by the wealthy 
merchants and retired citizens of Cork. He said our 
manufactures were intruding greatly on their own. 
For instance, leather was formerly one of the chief 
manufactures of Cork, but latterly has been driven out 
of market by American leather, which was sold at 
eighteen cents a pound, w^hile they could not make it 
for less than twenty-two cents. Also, that by our 
improvements in machinery, our boots and shoes were 
sold cheaper in Cork than they themselves could 
afford to make them : our calicoes and agricultural 
implements, too, competed successfully with theirs. 
He deprecated a war wdth Russia, because the in- 
creased taxation caused by it would be that " last 
straw that breaks the camel's back," as the margin 
was already so small between the cost of manufact- 



8 The Jauntmg-Car. 

ured articles and the prices they fetch, that we Ameri- 
cans would have increased advantage in other things 
also over their own manufactures. 

Cork is a beautiful city, the second in size and 
trade to Dublin. Here we first met the Irish jaunt- 
ing-car. Vehicles drawn by horses are here called 
cars, while what we call cars are known as coaches. 
This jaunting-car was a great curiosity to us. It is a 
two-wheeled vehicle, with seats for two each side, 
back to back, to balance the driver in front, and once 
started, off we go like Jehu ! If one could only be 
introduced into our city streets everybody would stop 
to gaze at it. 

Our jaunting-car driver was a real Irish wit, who 
made our journey interesting by his lively sallies, and 
it seemed indeed as if he had kissed the Blarney Stone, 
from his surprising facility of speech, accompanied by 
a good-humor quite equal to his glibness. We asked 
him, when w^e saw a large number of woro.en going 
bare-footed to the fair, "What kind of shoes have 
those women got on ? " Quick as a flash he replied, 
" They are made of bare skin, sir." All through Ire- 
land we found the guides full of wit and ready at 
repartee, intelligent and willing to give information. I 



The Blarney Stone. 9 

believe no other nation equal to them in natural 
fluency of speech. 

Our first ride, of course, must be to Blarney Castle, 
five or six miles distant. The road leading thither out 
of Cork is a beautiful one, adorned with fine resi- 
dences, whose grounds are covered with oak, birch, 
holly and yew trees ; with vines and hedges of holly ; 
with myrtle, laurestinus and English ivy; indeed, 
everywhere we can now see why Ireland is called the 
" Ever-Green Isle." All the farms look like Uttle gar- 
den-spots, separated by hedges, or walls covered with 
vines. Blarney Castle is a grand old ruin, with the 
donjon-keep still more than one hundred feet in the 
air, much better preserved than most ruins ; it is said 
to have been originally the home of the royal 
McCarthys. The original " Blarney Stone " hangs 
near the top of the southern wall, and " only fools 
risk their necks in trying to kiss it." It is claimed by 
the Irish that any one w^ho kisses it has the gift of 
eloquence given them. A bright EngHsh girl at the 
hotel told me that it would do just as well to kiss any 
one that had already kissed it ; but that she had not 
kissed it. Of course I did not try to kiss the Blarney 
Stone, if such were the fact. When we arrived at the 



lo A Weddins: Fete. 



Castle we found flags flying from every eminence, and 
poles all about, with banners bearing the coat-of-arms 
of Sir George Colehurst (who owns the three thousand 
acres upon which the Castle is situated), on account of 
the marriage which was to take place that day in Lon- 
don of his daughter Julia and Mr. Bruce, of Belfast. 
All the inhabitants of Blarney were out in their best 
clothes, as this was a holiday, and a grand fete was 
given, with a dinner free to all, and dancing, with 
music furnished by the Dutch band from Cork. The 
table was spread with substantial viands, tastefully 
arranged among flowers, vines and mottoes. One 
motto in Irish was ^^Cead viille failthe'' (one hundred 
thousand welcomes) ; another motto in vines bore 
the legend, " Long live the happy pair." Here we 
saw the stables of the owner, and his vehicles, which 
they called the drag, the brake, the dog-cart, and the 
barouche — all heavy and cumbersome looking, and 
not at all like our light, handsome, artistic carriages. 

On our return we visited the Cork County Annual 
Fair, where we had a good opportunity to see the 
genuine Irish peasant. The men were all well dressed 
and well shod ; but the women, although they wore 
clean, short woolen dresses, were bare-legged and 



The Irish Flora. ii 

without shoes. The horses, sheep, and cattle were 
like stock in Ohio, except that the latter were a short- 
horned breed, and much smaller than ours. The 
little donkeys were a great curiosity, and we saw them 
everywhere, hitched to drays and carts ; and how 
they could draw such loads was a wonder to us — they 
being about the size of the smallest Shetland ponies. 
Common cows — small ones — brought eighty dollars; 
horses, ditto, one hundred and fifty dollars ; good, fat 
lambs, twelve dollars ; sheep, eighteen dollars ; and 
butter, twenty-eight cents a pound. Farm laborers 
and men who hire out get two dollars and a half a 
week and board themselves. 

Wherever we have been in Ireland we were delighted 
with the gay, bright flowers, almost, if not quite, equal 
to the flora of California. Some of the little mud cot- 
tages with thatched roofs were covered with daisies, 
white and yellow, and looked cheerful enough; and 
all along the road there was a great variety of flower- 
ing plants, among which the fox-glove (called the 
"fairy-slipper") was the most conspicuous. 

We rode around Cork, a city founded by the Danes 
A. D. looo. Several of the churches are worthy of 
attention — the Cathedral, St. Patrick's, St. Ann's, and 



12 Bells of Shandoii. 

the very ancient church of Shandon, with its thirty 
sweet bells, which I Hstened to until midnight, being 
kept awake by the characteristic volubility of the 
people around me. These bells are referred to by 
Father Prout in his 

" Bells of Shandon 
That sound so grand on 
The pleasant waters 
Of the River Lee." 

Our ride by car (stage-coach), about one hundred 
miles, to the Lakes of Killarney, via Glengariff, was 
full of intense interest. On the way we noted the 
ruins of many fine old stone castles, at least twenty- 
five in number, now almost hidden among the green 
of clambering vines. We enjoyed to the full this oppor- 
tunity, while passing through the country, of seeing 
the Irish farms, their mode of cultivation, and the 
manner in which the people live. All along the val- 
ley, wherever there is a piece of ground large enough 
to insert a spade, they plant potatoes and corn, by 
which latter term they mean oats and barley, for 
with them all grains are " corn." I asked the driver, 
" Do you plant any corn here ? " — meaning maize. 



Cabins of the Peasantry . 13 

" O yes," he answered, " don't you see it ? " pointing 
at the same time to the oats and barley. 

The cabins are small, low, stone buildings, with 
thatched roofs, the doors just high enough to admit 
of entrance without stooping, and with one or two 
rooms six or eight feet by twelve, where the family 
lives with its chickens, ducks and pigs. The fire is of 
peat, which we saw donkeys carrying, a pannier full 
on each side, dug from the marshy ground ; the floor 
is of earth, well swept, and clean and neat ; no furni- 
ture is to be seen but a stool and a bed of boards, 
covered with straw and a few rags, in which all sleep 
together, or at least in pretty close proximity. In the 
corner, was piled, on a shelf against the wall, the 
delf, the clean, pretty plates of blue fronting us. 
It was disagreeable to notice that, almost without 
exception, the front yards contained a cess-pool, 
the ground being dug out so as to hold VA^ater, 
and then the accumulations alike from the house- 
hold and the animals thrown in, to remain and 
greet continually the olfactories of the inmates. There 
are no windows, so they have a continual odor. 
You ask, " Why is this ? " An intelligent CathoHc 
priest who rode with us some distance, told us 



14 A Health Anomaly. 

that they had tried to reform them in this ; but long 
habit, the necessity of making compost for their 
land, the convenience of having a receptacle wherein 
can be thrown all refuse, and the fact that site's for 
cabins were selected hundreds of years ago, chiefly 
with reference to this said conveniency for land 
manure, altogedier seemed to render it almost impos- 
sible to change their habits in this respect. The 
men, women and children look healthy and rosy- 
cheeked notwithstanding; but with us it would 
surely breed typhoid and other diseases. We asked 
the good Father, " Why not the same law of health 
here as with us at home ? " He replied, " The 
cabins here have no windows ; the people live largely 
out-of-doors, and, therefore, do not suffer so much 
from the effluvia." 

Lord Bantry, who lives on Bantry Bay, by the side 
of which we rode for miles, owns an area of fifteen 
by forty miles of these lands, and rents them to these 
poor people. Rents, taxes and church-rates make 
their lives hard indeed. Nearly all the land of the 
country is owned by a few lords and rich proprietors, 
and these poor men own nothing. In fact, the land 
of Ireland is cultivated by six hundred thousand 




VIEW OF THE LAKE OF KILLARNEY. 

Tore Mountain from Dinis Island.) 



The Lakes of Killarney. 1 5 

tenants, and owned by sixteen thousand landlords, 
of whom about two thousand possess two-thirds of 
the whole. It is not surprising, that, under such a 
system, there should exist Irish discontent. 

Glengarifif is a most picturesque place near the 
head of Bantry Bay, combining mountain and coast 
scenery in such perfection that Dr. H. thought it 
almost equal to the view in Lucerne, Switzerland. 
Here stands the old stone castle, now abandoned, 
dating from the time of the French wars ; and Crom- 
well's Bridge, erected so that he could visit the 
O'Sullivan. From here over the Kerry Mountains, 
we wandered about Bantry and Kenmare Bays, the 
scene of many of the landings during the invasions 
of the French and others. The ride to-day was even 
more grand and picturesque than before. It culmi- 
nated as we approached the Lakes of Killarney 
nearest to the mountains ; while the last seven miles 
were along the three beautiful lakes called Lough 
Leane, Muckross and Upper, resembHng somewhat 
Lake George, although not nearly so beautiful and 
picturesque. There is a legendary and poetic charm 
about them, as they are the scenes of all the O'Don- 
oghue legends, from which have been formed so 



1 6 Muckross Abbey. 

many stories and dramas; while Moore has immor- 
talized one of the most charming portions of the 
lower lake in his " Sweet Innisfallen," and Lover 
(appropriate name) has clustered around them the 
most mischievous of memories, in his song, — 

" Kate Kearney, 
Who lives on the Banks of Killarney." 

All about here is most delightful. Many of the 
estates and residences of lords and the old aristocracy 
were selected on account of the beauty of situation, 
with their lovely views of mountain and lake. Muck- 
ross Abbey is one of the finest mediaeval ruins in 
Ireland. It was founded for the Franciscan friars, in 
A. D. iioo, by the McCarthys, Princes of Desmond. 
It is so luxuriantly umbrageous, that the ivy-covered 
building is not perceived until the visitor stands close 
beside it, and gazes upon the mouldering relics of 
antiquity. 

The sepulchers of the ancient chiefs, among them 
those of O'SuUivan, Mor and O'Donoghue, are here, 
their tombstones still existing in different stages of 
decay, some with and some without epitaphs. The 
building consists of two principal parts, the church 



Footpi'ints of Cromwell. 17 

and the convent ; the length of the former being one 
hundred and ten feet, its breadth twenty- four feet, 
while thirty-six feet is the length of the transept. It 
is divided into three compartments — choir, nave and 
south transept, at the intersection of which stands a 
square, massive tower of no great height. An elegant 
arched doorway, covered with a soft garb of ivy, forms 
the entrance, through which may be seen the great east- 
ern window of the choir, in which part of the building 
the tombs are very numerous. The best preserved 
portion of the abbey is the cloister, in the center of 
which grows a magnificent yew tree, probably as old 
as the abbey itself, its circumference being thirteen 
feet. The refectory, the kitchen and the dormitories 
are still in good preservation, and the great fire-place 
that remains attests the attention that the friars paid to 
good cheer. The people tell you that Cromwell 
destroyed all these old castles and abbeys ; they show 
you the hill from which he fired upon Blarney Castle, 
hitting the tower, whose injured portion is now upheld 
by iron rods. Irishmen, in truth, hate Cromwell, and 
if they wish to show their deep execration toward 
any one they cry, " The curse of Cromwell be upon 
you ! " 



II. 



Parting Glimpses of the Emerald Isle Cathedral 

Restoration. Welsh Scenery Llanberis 

Snowdon. , . .Chester Cathedral. . . .Eaton Hall 

The Hotels. .. .Railways. 

Llanberis, Wales. 

ON Monday we came across the Irish Sea from 
DubHn to Holyhead, to make a tour through 
the " Switzerland of Wales," as it is called. We spent 
about ten days in Ireland, and were dehghted with 
our visit, especially around the Lakes of Killarney, 
in favor of which much more might be said than 
can be written without kissing the " Blarney." The 
Sabbath was passed in Dublin, where we heard 
the Rev. Dr. Morley Punshon preach. He is one 
of the most eloquent Methodist clergymen in the 
world, and many of our friends remember the trouble 
he had with his denomination, in England, on account 



Ditblin. 1 9 

of marrying his deceased wife's sister. He came to 
this country, therefore, to gain a residence, and 
evade the law of England. The people here were 
dehghted with his eloquent rhetorical periods and 
exquisite style, quite in contrast with his rather coarse, 
large physique. His sermon did not give me an 
impression of great sincerity, but rather seemed a 
rhetorical display of eloquent words. When he lec- 
tured in Columbus we were all pleased, and it 
appears to me that he is more popular on the lec- 
ture platform than as a profound and effective pul- 
pit orator. Dublin is an old and substantial city, 
dating back to A. D. 140. The native Irish called 
it " Drom-Col-Coille " (the hill of hazel-wood). 
It is now four miles in length, and has nearly 
one thousand streets and many ancient and beau- 
tiful specimens of architecture, noticeable among 
which is Christ's Church Cathedral, erected A. D. 
1038. It was here that the Church liturgy was 
first read in Ireland in the English language. The 
old Cathedral has just been restored, through the 
liberality of a Mr. Ray, a whiskey distiller, at a 
cost of ^180,000 (about $900,000). Near this 
edifice, down Nicholas street, through the " Five 



20 Sf. Patrick's Well. 

Points" of the city — a most wretched locality — 
stands the Cathedral of St. Patrick. Tradition points 
out this spot as the scene of very early religious rites 
in pagan times; but the earliest account of any 
Christian ceremony performed there is of the occasion 
when St. Patrick preached to the Irish during his 
efforts to convert them to the Christian faith. The 
sexton opened a well inside the Cathedral, and gave 
us a draught of water. The well, he said, was dug 
by St. Patrick himself, and thousands of bottles of 
the water had been taken to America. He informed 
us besides that the saint had dug the well to baptize 
the king and his newly-converted subjects, in A. D, 
448. He showed us, also, the old stone font in 
the Cathedral where Cromwell watered his horses, 
and where he stabled them in the nave. The build- 
ing was almost a ruin, a few years ago, until Mr. 
Giiinness, the wealthy brewer, undertook to restore 
it — a work which has cost him ^225,000 (about 
$1,125,000). In the interior are the monuments of 
Swift and Mrs. Esther Johnson, the " Stella " of his 
poems. There are also grotesque tombs of the 
Boyles, Schomberg, and others. If Mr. Ray and 
Mr. Guinness had underpinned and buttressed these 



Llaiiberis. 2 1 

old edifices, monuments of the past, and expended 
their money in building new cathedrals, their deeds 
might have been more Avorthy to embalm their 
memories in the coming years ; for to me it seems a 
sacrilege to restore, as it is termed, these grand old 
architectural ruins. I begin to realize that we are 
moving among the stately monuments which still 
speak of the genius and wonderful creative skill of 
the past. 

After visiting Bangor, Wales, and viewing the 
grand scenery from the top of the tubular bridge 
across the Menai Straits, which is eighteen hundred 
and fifty feet long, built by Sir George Stevenson 
at a cost of over three million dollars, we reached 
our present stopping-place, Llanberis, passing <?;z 
I'oute several thriving Welsh cities and Dolbadam 
Castle, at Caernarvon, the birth place of Edward the 
Second, the first Engfish Prince of Wales. It is 
a noble and picturesque ruin. At Llanberis we saw 
the beautiful lakes and waterfalls of the same name, 
embosomed among the Caernarvon Mountains, at the 
foot of Snowdon. We were advised to ascend the 
mountain during the night, in order to be ready to 
see the sun rise, from its summit, at half-past three 



22 Snowdon. 

in the morning, and accordingly procured our 
guide and ponies, and started up the mountain 
for an all-night ride, though the ascent to this 
highest elevation in Great Britain has obtained the 
evil repute that many persons in attempting it have 
perished on the way, and the attendant endeavored 
to interest us by relating the loss and destruction of 
some who had ventured up without heeding the 
advice of their guide. The fog and wind made the 
journey a cold and dismal one, and right glad were 
we, on reaching the top, to find a cabin with a 
comfortable fire. We waited patiently for the sun to 
rise. The time for his appearance came, but the fog 
was so thick that his majesty did not dispel it, and 
thus, like the " King of France," in the old song, 
" We marched up the mountain, and marched down 
again," without the view we had anticipated, although, 
in descending, we caught a glimpse of the grand 
scenery about us, and reached at length our good 
" homely" (home-like) " hotel," as the Welsh girl called 
it, who recommended us to go to the " Dolbadarn," 
established in 1708. 

We took a top seat on the stage through 
" Llanberis Pass," passing the largest slate quarries 



Welsh Scenery, 23 

in Wales, which employ three thousand men. In 
few places has nature been more grand in her hand- 
iwork than in this vale, which infinitely surpasses 
aU works of art. 

We stopped at Bettws-y-Coed. All the way the 
scenery has been most beautiful, where rivers, rocks, 
waterfalls and mountains present scenes of a divers- 
ified character. Taking the train for Chester, we 
passed through a beautiful country looking much 
like New England, though the houses are of stone, 
and many of them present a fine appearance. There 
were a great number of visitors among these Welsh 
mountains, which seem to be to England what the 
White Mountains are to our Eastern States at 
home. The weather has been so cold hitherto that 
we have been obliged to keep on our thickest winter 
clothing ; but the thermometer has to-day mounted 
to 81 degrees, which is the w^armest of the season. 
All through Wales we meet men who look like the 
Davis, Jones, Price, Hughes, Phillips and Williams 
families of Columbus, and we see their names as 
proprietors of hotels and other business estabHsh- 
ments. The marked nationality, which betrays itself 
especially in language, is most strikingly apparent on 



24 Old Chester. 

passing the boundary separating either England, Ire- 
land, Scotland or Wales. 



Blossoms Hotel, Chester, England. 

" Rare old Chester," wrote Albert Smith, in his 
" Struggles and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole." 
Chester is a walled city — the only one in Great 
Britain — two miles in circumference. " In A. D. 6i 
the walls were built by the Romans; in 73, Marius, 
King of the Britons, extended the walls; in 607 the 
Britons were defeated under the walls ; in 907 the 
walls were rebuilt by a daughter of Alfred the Great; 
in 1224 an assessment for repairing the walls was 
made; in 1399 Henry of Lancaster mustered his 
troops under these walls; in 1645 the Parliamentary 
forces made a breach in these walls." As we go 
round these ancient walls one of the first objects of 
interest is Chester Cathedral, founded A. D. 1095. 
An attempt has been made to restore this old ruin, 
but it has been only partially successful through 
want of funds, for there are no rich brewers here 
who wish to perpetuate their names in Cathedral 
restorations. The verger, who showed us through 



Cathedral of Chester. 25 

the building, pointed out many objects of interest. 
The beautiful carving, which had been painted all 
colors of the rainbow, was now restored to its origi- 
nal oak, and is said to be the richest specimen of 
wood carving in Great Britain. Some of this beau- 
tiful work under the stalls for the monks was very 
ornate, among which, in their different stages, scenes 
of matrimonial quarrels were conspicuous. Canon 
Charles Kingsley once officiated here, and the present 
Dean is Dr. Howson, the eminent author, who, 
conjointly with Dr. Conybeare, wrote the Life of 
St. Paul, and other celebrated works of a kindred 
nature. A choral service was being held at the 
time, which we greatly enjoyed. The dean, two 
canons, vergers, organists, and ten boy singers were 
in attendance, and for an audience, there were 
some ten or fifteen women and ourselves. When 
they came in, the two vergers, with silver maces, 
marched in front, all presenting to one unaccustomed 
to it an attractive appearance. When the canon 
conducted any part of the service, the verger preceded 
him with the mace, and when he had finished that 
part of the service, would again precede him in like 
manner to the pulpit. It was refreshing to tarry 



26 Cathedral of Chester. 

awhile in this grand old Cathedral and worship 
God, surrounded, as we were, by so many vivid and 
solemn mementoes of the past. Here were the 
cloisters for the friars and monks of this once won- 
derful abbey, and their walks and places of medita- 
tion. The little, narrow oak seats around the walls, 
their places of rest in former times, exhibited, when 
raised, splendid carvings of historical events. Here 
were tombstones of quaint device and ancient date. 
All combined to make the hour an eventful one to 
us, and then the service was so beautiful and help- 
ful ! There are many things to interest us in this old 
Cathedral — monuments, rich memorial windows of 
stained glass, the gorgeous canopy of ancient oak 
adorning and supporting the fine organ, and that 
superb range of stalls, also of oak, four-and-twenty 
on either side, crowned with canopies of the richest 
tracery, and no one stall the copy of the other. As 
we stand and look around the magnificent nave, and 
note the taste and elegance which everywhere per- 
vade it, we are struck with awe and admiration, 
and feel like exclaiming, " How all the resources of 
art have been brought to bear, by the creature man, 
in honor of his Creator, God ! " 




s 



An Old Battle-Field. 27 

As we start on our walk around the old wall of 
Chester, we come to an ancient tower rising above 
it, and upon it we read this inscription, " King 
Charles stood on this tower, September 24, 1645, 
and saw his army defeated on Rowton Moor." As 
we enter the tower an enthusiastic old man points 
out to us the battle-field and many places of inter- 
est about the city, and our minds go back, as we 
read over the quaint inscription that thus commemo- 
rates the fact that Charles the First stood on this 
very spot, and saw his gallant cavaliers borne down 
by the grim soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's army. At 
almost every step some object to recall the history 
of the past is brought before our notice — quaint old 
buildings of the sixteenth century, and other interest- 
ing objects, which we have not time to describe in 
a letter written as this is, " on the wing." One old 
house is pointed out to us, with the inscription, 
" God's Providence House," and it is said to be the 
only house in the city that escaped the plague in the 
seventeenth century. The owner carved upon the 
front: "1652. God's Providence is Mine Inherit- 
ance. 1652." They have curious names also for their 
hotels. Opposite " Blossoms," where we stopped, we 



28 The Wealthiest Ejiglishmaji. 

can read the signs of the "Hop Pole Hotel," 
" Bear's Paw Hotel," and '• Green Dragon Hotel." 

It was in this quaint old city that Thomas Cole, 
who afterwards setded in America, and became 
celebrated as the painter of " The Voyage of Life," 
"The Expulsion," "The Course of Empire," and 
other noble works, was first put to school by his 
father, who then resided at Chorley, and it is inter- 
esting to recall the fact that while the rudiments of 
his education were received here, his first efforts 
with the brush were made in Ohio. There may still 
be persons living in Zanesville, Chilicothe or Steu- 
benville who remember him. 

We leave the city with regret ; but we must have 
a row on the Dee. It was a beautiful day, and our 
boatman, an old citizen, who has followed his occu- 
pation on this classic stream for forty years, willingly 
pointed out to us all the objects of interest, and told 
us many things, on our way to Eaton Hall, about 
the Marquis of Westminster, the owner, who is the 
richest man in England. His income is said to be 
^i loi". (about $7.25) a minute. This grand estate 
is thirty-six miles in circuit, whilst besides this he 
has other estates in Wales, Scotland, Berkshire and 



Aristocratic Estates. 29 

London. The Marquis's son, the Duke of West- 
minster, resides on this estate, and while we were 
there he started for Manchester to attend a 
" Domestic Economy Congress " meeting. He is 
quite prominent in all moral and social reforms, 
especially in that of temperance. Both the Marquis 
and the Duke, his son, are liked by their tenants, 
and are popular with all classes. The estates are 
said to have belonged to the Chester Cathedral 
property when the Roman CathoHcs possessed it. 
No wonder that it has engendered bitterness in their 
hearts toward the Church of England to have all 
these grand old cathedrals and this immense church 
property taken from them. This was the first 
English estate we visited, and we found ourselves 
continually exclaiming, " What a pity that such vast 
estates could not be sold in small farms to the tenants, 
instead of having them entailed to sustain and per- 
petuate a great and powerful aristocracy ! " In passing 
through one estate in Scotland to-day we traversed 
thirty-six miles. In fact, almost all the land in 
Great Britain is held in this way and cannot be sold. 
Our ride up to Eaton Hall was a delightful 
one; our walk of seven miles through the grounds 



30 Manufacturing Interests. 

to Chester was on a broad, macadamized road, 
without a residence, except the lodge occupied by 
the gate-keeper and attached to the gates. This 
reaHzed our dreams of an EngHsh park. A herd of 
from sixty to eighty red and spotted deer were seen 
feeding near the road, and rabbits and other wild 
animals started into flight at our approach. We 
visited the green-houses, and were told by the 
gardener that it took five miles of steam-pipe to heat 
them. Such rare shrubs and flowers, with their sweet 
perfumes, I never again expect to see. 

Our journey from Chester to the English lakes has 
been through the large manufacturing and coal and 
iron districts. All speak of the manufacturing interests 
as greatly depressed ; but there is not so much suffer- 
ing among the operatives as in former years, as they 
have now learned to live more providently. I 
remember, some thirty years ago, to have heard Hon. 
Thomas Ewing, then United States Senator, dehver 
an address in Columbus on " The Downfall of 
England," founding his prophesy mainly upon a coal 
famine, which he supposed to be not far distant. 
On inquiry, I learn that such an event is not likely 
to occur for some centuries yet, and, judging from 



American Beef. 31 

the price of coal, such a calamity need not be feared. 
The best anthracite coal is sold for from seven to 
nine shillings a ton, delivered in London, equivalent 
to $1.75 to $2.25 in our currency; and to the iron 
furnaces and rolling-mills is delivered at from four to 
six shillings, or $1 to $1.25 per ton; for the new 
discoveries made of late years have rendered coal 
cheaper than it was some years ago. 

A well-informed manufacturer of London, whom 
we met on our travels, told us that American 
petroleum oil was sold for so much less than oil 
could be produced here that many of their large oil 
manufacturers were ruined, and, that if the supply 
continued, they would all be obliged to stop. 

The newspapers this morning say that the experi- 
ment of bringing over live stock from America in 
sailing vessels proves a success. Five vessels arrived 
in this country last week w^ith 1,825 head of cattle, 
and a number of horses and hogs. None died on 
the way, and only two had to be killed, and they 
were preserved in ice and brought to market here. 
This success is likely to have an important effect on 
English market prices for beef, and to increase the 
foreign demand in America. The weekly average 



32 The Tempei'ance Question. 

arrival is from four to five thousand head. Prices 
are affected by the falling off in arrivals, and 
advanced one day on that account from seven and 
a-half to nine and a-half pence, or from fifteen to 
nineteen cents a pound. The best roasts and steaks 
bring from twenty-five to thirty-two cents a pound. 

I had read for years that there was a much 
greater amount of intoxication in Great Britain than 
in the United States. In Ireland " mountain dew " 
(whiskey) was freely displayed at the hotels, and in 
England almost every one, men and women, drink 
ale and porter at their meals, and Scotch whiskey is 
recommended to us Americans to make us robust 
and healthy. Officers of churches are prominent 
dealers in " wine and spirits," and the clergy take a 
little for "the stomach's sake." Mr. O'Sullivant, 
Member of Parliament for Limerick County, Ireland, 
has introduced a bill providing that all spirits shall 
be detained in bond for at least twelve months 
before being permitted to be put on sale. It is not 
expected, however, that this will end the great evil 
of intemperance. At a recent investigation it was 
stated that an importer of whiskey admitted to an 
inspector that a moderate sized bottle of " French 



English Hotels. -^-x^ 

polish " would make a considerable quantity of wild 
whiskey. If " French polish," labeled " whiskey," is 
bonded for a dozen months, it comes out " French 
polish " still. We notice that the CathoHc papers 
are earnest supporters of the temperance cause. We 
were informed that three of the Bishops and two 
of the Deans of Westminster Abbey were total 
abstainers. 

Here, everywhere, women seem to have charge of 
the hotels, both in offices and bar-rooms. Men are 
seen sitting around little tables, drinking and smok- 
ing, while the women are attending to the office. 
The dining-rooms appear to be used as sitting and 
reading-rooms. The prices, so far, have been quite 
reasonable, averaging some $2.50 a day. It is 
always safe to make your bargains before you 
occupy your room; if not, there are likely to be 
a great many extras charged, for attendance, etc. 
Everybody wants a fee. They say, from Gladstone 
down to " Boots," make your bargains in advance, 
and you will be all right. You can travel in Eng- 
land, in third-class cars, at a penny a mile. Each 
car has four compartments, each compartment seating 
about six on each side, back to back. When the 
3 



34 Railway Travel. 

train starts, the doors are locked, and every one is 
fast until the next station, no matter whom they 
may have for companions. Should there be insane or 
drunken people, or even murderers among them, 
there is no remedy. The conductor, or guard, as he 
is here called, does not make his appearance until 
the next station. We have read of some startling 
experiences with the insane in these closely fastened 
cars, and that ladies have sometimes been insulted. 
An officer in the English army, of high social posi- 
tion, was lately tried and found guilty of disgraceful 
conduct to a young lady who was alone with him 
in one of these apartments. Trains make very fast 
time. One train, called the " Flying Scotchman," 
averages some sixty miles an hour between Glasgow 
and London, a distance of about four hundred 
miles. 



£^3^ 



iai±^iii^ia^i^iiisi*Sid 



III. 



The English Lakes and Homes of the Poets.... Ayr 
AND Robert Burns .... Glasgow : its Working 
People, Open Air Services on Sunday, the Old 
Cathedral .... Ship- yards on the Clyde. . . .Inver- 
ness Glencoe Loch Ness. 

Ay7', Scotland. 

OUR visit to the English lakes was a most 
interesting one, not only on account of the 
beautiful scenery, but from the associations connected 
with them ; so many of England's distinguished poets 
and authors having lived, w^ritten, and died there. 
Our first sail was by steam yacht around Lake 
Windermere. The residence of Prof Wilson (" Chris- 
topher North ") was the first place of note that .met 
our view ; then Mrs. Hemans's " Dove Nest," a little 
white cottage, was seen embowered amid the trees 
on the slope. After leaving the yacht, at the head 



36 Words7uorth, 

of the lake, we take coach, and are enchanted with 
the lovely views of mountain and mere, and residences 
nestling by the waterside. The first house of special 
interest is " Nab Cottage," the humble white home- 
stead on the roadside, by the margin of Rydal Lake, 
where Hartley Coleridge, the poet, lived and died. 
Next comes Rydal Mount, near the summit of 
which stands Wordsworth's house. The grounds 
are called Rydal Park, but no one is allowed 
entrance. The property is rented, and the occupant 
does not care to be annoyed by visitors. 

We soon come to the quiet, smooth and beautiful 
Lake Grasmere ; and then the first place to be sought 
is the church-yard, where Wordsworth's family lie 
buried, under a simple and modest slate-colored 
tomb-stone, about three feet in height, with the 
following inscriptions: "William Wordsworth, 1850;" 
" Mary Wordsworth, 1859." Beside them lies their 
daughter, and, next to her, her husband. Some 
other children of Wordsworth, who died young, are 
buried near. Close behind the family group is the 
monument of Hartley Coleridge, about two feet in 
height, of gray granite, and surmounted with a Greek 
cross and crown. Around the crown are the words. 



Vale of Grasmere. 37 

" By Thy cross and passion, good Lord, deliver us," 
and under this comes : " Hartley Coleridge, born 
September 6, A. D. 1796, deceased January 6, 1849." 
The quaint old church near by, where they both 
worshiped, and the pews they occupied, were shown 
us, as well as a statue of Wordsworth in marble, in 
the church. 

The vale of Grasmere is thus described by Words- 
worth : " This vale of Grasmere, the loveliest spot 
that man hath ever found." On our return we took 
a path leading us by the house where Wordsworth 
first lived, and where he was visited by Sir Walter 
Scott and other authors. This path afforded us a 
splendid view of this whole region, of surpassing 
loveliness, and conducted us past Dr. Arnold's Fox 
Howe, and several beautiful homes under the mount- 
ains, with grounds laid out in English style, in lawns 
and flower-beds of almost every imaginable shape. 
I never walked over such velvety lawns, yet their 
effect and beauty seemed to me greatly injured by 
their being almost covered wdth such oddly-shaped 
flower-beds. 

Our ride of twenty-two miles by coach in the 
morning was full of enjoyment, lying along the 



$8 Southey, 

margins of Windermere, Rydal, and Grasmere, to 
Keswick, with thirty-four mountains in view, and in 
the vicinity sixteen lakes and eleven waterfalls. At 
Keswick we rode by the side of Derwent Water to 
the Cascade of Lodore, returning by row-boat. 
Near by is Greta Hall, where the poet Southey lived 
and died. In the graveyard adjoining the old 
Crossthwaite Church is his tomb-stone, in a recum- 
bent position, with the following inscription : " Here 
lies the body of Robert Southey, LL. D., poet 
laureate. Born August i8, 1774; died March 21, 
1843. For forty years a resident of this place. 
Also, of Edith, his wife; born May 20, 1774; died 
November 16, 1837. 'I am the Resurrection and 
the Life, saith the Lord.' " 

We were allowed to enter Greta Hall, and were 
shown the poet's study, where he wrote more than 
one hundred volumes and one hundred and fifty 
articles — some of them, like that on Nelson, as big 
as a book — for different reviews. 

We took the train, and were soon across the line 

into Scotland. On our way to Glasgow we made 

a detour to Ayr, the birth-place of Robert Burns. 

.^ Before visiting his monument we called on his nieces, 



Nieces of Robert Burns. 39 

Agnes and Isabella, aged respectively about sixty 
and seventy years. We were received most cordially. 
The elder sister asked to be excused, as she was 
engaged in washing dishes. She soon, however, 
came in. They live in a little, low, stone cottage, 
with thatched roof. Everything indicates a lack of 
this world's goods, yet all is neat and artistic, with 
flowers and pictures arranged about the room. 
They entertained us with talk about their uncle, 
and showed us a letter which has never yet been 
pubHshed; and, with true Scotch hospitality, offered 
us cake of their own making, from Australian flour, 
which they had had in the house for two years, and 
three kinds of wine — one being made by themselves 
from grapes grown in their own little yard. I could 
not resist the temptation to try the latter, but they 
Doctor steadily refused, as he always does, from 
principle. 

We walked to the splendid monument erected to 
the memory of Burns, near the church and burial 
ground of his family, and also near the scenes of 
some of his beautiful poems. The Scotch are enthu- 
siastic over Burns, and there were great crowds of 
excursionists from Glasgow, Paisley, and other cities. 



40 Jlii'^lish lV(>rki;ii:^-;ncfi. 

tlu' (lay l)cing Saturday, the afternoon of which is 
always a holiday for workmen. Wc thus had an 
0|)i)()rlunity of seeing the Scotch working people. 

'I'he working men of (Ireat llritain, from all 
accounts, seem terribly demoralized by drunkenness; 
and (he skilled ()])eratives are losing their genius 
and their power over other nations as superior 
workmen, by their dissolute habits, which seem to 
deaden their sensibilities. On the other liand, the 
manufacturers of the United States are fast taking 
the lead, and securing the markets of the world 
through means of their superior goods, which they 
produce at a price that enables them to compete 
with the {''nglish ; and even American-manufactured 
articles of cutlery and silvered ware arc sold in 
Sheffield. Some of the intelligent men that we 
met admitted this, and, when asked the reason, 
answered us, that ''the working-men take Saturday 
as a holiday, and invariably get drunk, and on 
Sunday are unfit to go to church, and take Monday 
as their religious day; so that Monday is called 
'■ Saint Monday,' as they lose so much time, and 
drunkenness imlits them for })roper application to 
their duties." 



]']ii;jlish /hor. 4 1 

'J'hcre is great rlistrcss in C)rca.t Hritain arDfjng 
working jjcojjIc. There are more persons suffering 
from hunger and want than at any jjrevious time. 
'J'he wr;rk-houses and jjoor-houses are overflowing. 
Many farnih'es are not ahle to buy meat, and live 
on bread anrl /^^er. 'I'he mills are not running, and 
the poor can find nothing to drj, anrl despair seems 
to stare them in the f)j.ee. 'I'he country apjjears 
overcrowdefi. Let them oorne to the United, States, 
where there is room for the-rn all, vvitli our sixty 
times more land than l'>nglanfJ, though her popula- 
tion is nearly equal to our own. Whiskey and beer 
drinking are a terri!;le curse, and twelve times as 
much is spent for alcoholic stimulants as for clothing, 
which, is enough to ruin any country. I''ngland's 
army also costs her more than we [;ay for all fjur 
schools. The laboring classes are not able to j;ur- 
chase a home, because the land is owned by a small 
number of large land-holders. More than half the 
land of Great Jiritain is owned by two thousand 
persons. 7'hese aristocratic gentry think Jess of the 
poor than of their thousanrls of acres for deer 
parks, and of having penal laws made, as if the 
very existence of the country dej^ended upon "hares 



42 The Re7it System. 

and rabbits." The Chatsworth estate, the seat of the 
Duke of Devonshire, through which we passed, con- 
tains two thousand acres for his private park, and 
thousands for farming. His flower-garden has two 
hundred acres. There are two thousand deer on 
the place. 

We traveled for miles without seeing any house 
except two or three large castles, occupied by fami- 
lies Hving in great splendor; while at the villages 
may be seen the renters of the land, who are 
miserably poor, and hardly able to make both ends 
meet after paying their rents, taxes and church 
dues ; " the abject slaves of the soil, whose sole 
hope in life is too often the work-house (that 
famous device against revolution, paid for by the 
middle class) and the pauper's grave." In talking 
with some of these renters, they say that " there is 
no inducement to try to any more than live ; we 
cannot own a home; the laws are all made to pro- 
tect the few thousand aristocrats, and thirty-two 
million souls are in their hands. The land-owner 
overrides all justice, takes precedence of all ordinary 
creditors on the helpless tenants of his estate, and 
controls the system of cultivation, often in utter 



The Rent System. 43 

disregard of private rights or private judgment; and, 
in addition, secures to himself the absolute reversion 
of every improvement which the tenant may make on 
the land." We asked one renter what rent he paid, 
and he repHed, two thousand dollars a year for one 
hundred and sixty acres of land. He could buy 
four hundred acres of as good land as the sun ever 
shone upon, in Kansas or Nebraska, for what he 
pays for the rent of one hundred and sixty acres 
for one year. People are likely to waste money 
when they do not save it to buy homes. Small 
farmers are a conservative influence in our land. 
They pay taxes, and are deeply interested in an 
economical management of the affairs of the govern- 
ment. We said this to one of the large land- 
owners, and he replied: "Our renters are satisfied; 
they set apart so much for taxes, so much for the 
church, so much for rent, and then live according 
to what remains from their income." In Ireland 
the poor people are not allowed to own a gun; 
they cannot fish in the lakes and streams, or hunt 
without a license; and if deer, rabbits or foxes 
come from the parks and destroy their crops, they 
have no remedy, and cannot shoot them. 



44 Glasgow. 



Glasgow, Scotland. 



Glasgow has a population of over half a million, 
and is the second or third city in Great Britain. 
We were impressed with the substantial appearance 
of the town. All the buildings are of stone, and its 
public edifices and churches are large and in a good 
style of architecture. Here we spent the Sabbath, 
and were struck with the crowds of well-dressed 
people on the streets, hurrying to and from church. 
Not a street car or public conveyance is to be 
seen, and only a few private carriages. No " wine 
and liquor " or drinking saloons are open, and all is 
quiet and orderly. As we pass through the 
thoroughfares to visit the cathedral, we notice at 
every corner, or prominent place, and park, orderly 
crowds, who seem quite attentive to lay preaching. 
A gentleman informed us that we should find out- 
of-door services in every part of the city from seven 
to nine o'clock, on Sunday nights, during the sum- 
mer months. 

The old Cathedral was founded A. D. 1133, 
though there was a church on the site as early as 
539, and dedicated to St. Mungo or Kentigerne, the 



The Old Cathedral. 45 

titular saint and founder of Glasgow. It is one of 
the few cathedrals saved from the mad fury of the 
populace, who sought to destroy, in these magnificent 
buildings, " the rookeries," as they styled them, lest 
the Popish prelates, " the rooks," should gather 
again. It was only saved by a prominent citizen 
threatening to shoot the first person that dared to 
touch a stone of the venerable pile. This cathedral 
has lately been "restored," and is unsurpassed by 
any other in Britain. The stained glass windows, 
which are considered fine works of art, add greatly 
to the beauty of the edifice. It is now owned or 
controlled by the Presbyterians, and whilst we were 
there services were being held. It seemed odd to 
witness the simple yet beautiful ceremonies of the 
Presbyterian Church conducted in so stately an edi- 
fice, and, as there was neither organ nor procession, 
it presented a striking contrast to the service we 
had so recently witnessed in Chester Cathedral. 
Leaving Glasgow, we made a tour through the 
Highlands, by the Scotch Lakes and Caledonia Canal, 
by which route we were informed that we should 
meet with the most picturesque and beautiful scenery 
anywhere to be found in Great Britain. Embarking 



46 Down the Clyde. 

on the new steamer Columba, on this her first trip, 
we noticed that the dock, for a mile at least, was 
lined with men, indicating that many people are out 
of employment. We learn that there is a strike among 
the men at work in the railroad shops, and hear 
also of serious strikes among all classes. Sailing 
down the Clyde, the great steamship docks and 
Atlantic steamers are in view. Upon this river are 
situated the most extensive yards for the building 
of iron ships in the world. Our new steamer is a 
magnificent one, costing two hundred thousand dol- 
lars. It is claimed to be the most perfect ideal of 
a steamboat as yet constructed, but they evidently 
have never seen our North River steamers. Her 
length is three hundred and eighteen feet, breadth 
of beam twenty-seven feet six inches. She is made 
entirely of steel, with steel boilers, and is the fastest 
sailer in Great Britain. Crowds line the docks 
at every stopping-place to look at her. 

During our trip through the Scottish lochs, we 
passed many beautiful watering-places, ajid obtained 
fine views of the Dunglass Castle, with the monu- 
ment arising amid its ruins, erected to the memory 
of Bell (who succeeded in launching upon the 



Caledonia Ca?ial. 47 

Clyde, for practical purposes, the first steamer in the 
world, the " Comet"), and Dumbarton Castle, the 
residence of the Duke of Argyll. It is truly a 
lovely tour, winding around through the lakes, 
and our steamer accomplished twenty miles an 
hour. At length we arrived at Ardrishaig, and 
took a steamer going by way of the canal to Crinan, 
situated on Loch Crinan. 



Inverness, Scotland. 

Our ride for two days through the Caledonia 
Canal and various lochs (lakes), from Oban to this 
place, which is its northern terminus on Moray 
Firth, has been worthy to be long remembered. The 
valley through which the canal runs is sixty-three 
miles long. The proposition to construct the canal 
was first made after the suppression of the rebellion 
in 1745; but it was not until the beginning of the 
present century that the scheme was revived. The 
work did not meet the expectations of its projectors, 
although it cost five million dollars. In 1846 it 
was improved, at a cost of one million dollars. 
Although it has never been profitable, yet it is 



48 Ballachulish and Gleiicoe. 

of great importance to the Highlands, and tourists 
certainly ought to feel grateful, as by this means 
they are enabled to view from the deck of a 
steamer some of the most sublime and picturesque 
scenery of the country. 

We stop on the way at Ballachulish, and take 
coach for nine miles, through Glencoe, obtaining 
many views of surpassing grandeur, and tarry for 
the night at Corpach. While taking a walk to view 
some old ruins, we were accompanied by Dr, 
Donald Macleod, a popular preacher of Glas- 
gow, editor of Good Words, and Chaplain to the 
Queen. He w^as stopping with Rev. Dr. Clerk, the 
Presbyterian minister of the parish, through whose 
kindness we were permitted to pass a delightful 
evening at the " Manse," and enjoy conversation 
and music in a refined and highly cultivated High- 
land home. Dr. Clerk is brother-in-law to Dr. 
Macleod, and the latter informed us that he was 
one of the most learned men in Scotland, and yet, 
for many years, had been settled over the very small 
congregation at Corpach, belonging to the " Old 
Kirk," and received his salary from the government; 
which gave him opportunity for leisure and study. 



Glencoe. 49 

His wife and daughters were beautiful and intelli- 
gent, and quite inclined to compliment America and 
Americans, and American lakes and scenery. They 
seemed quite familiar with our authors, and the 
youngest daughter told me that she had just been 
reading " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Dr. Clerk asked 
his daughters to sing and play on the piano for us. 
They responded with some old Scotch ballads, 
joining with Dr. Macleod, who has a splendid 
voice. The music was restful and cheering, and 
artistically rendered. Dr. Clerk told us an anecdote 
of an old lady visiting Corpach, which Hes at the 
foot of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, 
its top being continually covered with snow. Seeing 
the snow on the mountains, she wondered if the 
women up there " kept their clothes out to dry 
all the time." In the morning we continue our 
journey by another steamer on the canal, and reach 
this place through forty-one miles of lakes and 
twenty-one miles of cuttings. This canal, intersect- 
ing Scotland from sea to sea, was planned to 
supersede the dangerous navigation of the Pentland 
Firth. Various old castles and ruins are pointed 
out to us, and almost every mountain and tarn has 
4 



50 Loch Ness, 

its own history, massacre or battle, connected with 
the various contending clans and parties in the past. 
The longest loch through which we passed is Loch 
Ness, twenty-four miles long, and averaging one mile 
and a quarter in breadth, and its banks are clothed 
with birch woods to the water's edge. We stop 
and walk up the mountain about a mile to the 
Cataract of Foyers, a beautiful fall; but, as the 
streams at this time were not full, it disappointed our 
expectations. On our steamer there was a dehghtful 
company, mostly families traveling for pleasure, and 
an intelligent gentleman, noticing that we were 
Americans, and taking notes on our way, remarked 
that he had observed in a Glasgow morning paper 
that a telegram from the New York Herald Weather 
Bureau predicted rain in the north of Scotland on 
the fourth of July, and the prediction was confirmed 
by the rain driving us from the deck. He related 
a conversation with an old farmer, who had been 
greatly annoyed by the rainy weather in getting in 
his spring crops, and who had the old English 
prejudice against Americans. He said that when 
God Almighty managed the weather it was tolerably 
good, but since those Americans had got control of 



Liverness. 5 1 

it it was outrageous, and he hoped the Almighty- 
would resume his care of it soon, or the Americans 
would ruin their crops. 

Inverness is of great antiquity. Cromwell's fort 
and other places of interest are to be seen from the 
top of Castle Hill. 

I am writing now, at one o'clock a. m., Avithout 
artificial light. It does not get dark, but only " a 
little hazy," as they call it, between twelve and one 
o'clock ; and it is light enough to read out of doors, 
except during the hour above mentioned. 

To-day is our " Independence Day," and it has 
been so cold that we w^ere obliged to wxar our 
winter garments and overcoats in order to keep com- 
fortable. It is " fast day " here, which is observed 
twice a year in each parish by the Presbyterians, on 
the Sabbath previous to Communion. All business 
is suspended, therefore, in this district or parish, 
for it is their " Easter " day. 




IV. 



Visit TO the Hebrides. .. .The Tradition of " Lady 
Rock " . . . . Castle of the " Lord of the Isles " . . . . 

Fingal's Cave .... Iona and Saint Columba 

Reflections. 

Staffa and Iona Islands, Scotland. 

WE spent a most intensely interesting day in 
visiting the islands of Staffa and Iona, two of 
the inner Hebrides, fifty-five miles from Oban, whence 
we take the steamer and sail up the Sound of Mull, 
skirting the most striking coast scenery which the 
Hebrides afford. The weather was most delightful, 
and the natural and picturesque scenery of the coast 
afforded us keen enjoyment, which was heightened by 
association with the historical events and traditions 
connected with the islands. In stormy weather the 
Sound is exceedingly rough, and its passage disagree- 
able. After leaving Oban, the famous " Dog-Stone " 



Traditio?i of Lady Rock. 53 

is pointed out to us, to which, according to tradition, 
Fingal was wont to tie his dog Bran, on his visits to 
Lorn. Lismore Light-House is seen on the western 
point of the island of Lismore — the "great garden," 
and before the Reformation the seats of the Bishops 
of Argyll and of the Isles. In passing the Hght-house, 
the "Lady Rock" is seen. According to tradition, 
'' ' Lady Rock ' was the scene of a tragic episode in 
feudal times, which Campbell, the poet, has immortal- 
ized in his poem of ' Glenara,' and which forms the 
ground-work of the ' Family Legend,' by Joanna 
Baillie. The story is to the effect that Lauchlan 
Cathanach Maclean, of Duart, had married a daughter 
of Archibald, Earl of Islay, a progenitor of the Argyll 
family ; but wishing to get rid of her, he conveyed her 
from Duart Castle to the ' Lady Rock' — one mile — 
and left her on it at low water, in the hope that she 
would be drowned when the tide rose. In this he was 
disappointed, for the cries of the lady brought some 
fishermen to her rescue, and when she got safe to land 
she made at once for her father's castle, at Inverary. 
Maclean shortly after went to Inverary, in deep mourn- 
ing, to tell her father that his wife had mysteriously 
disappeared, but he was rather astonished to find her 



54 The Loi'd of the Isles. 

there before him, aHve and well. On leaving the castle, 
Maclean was set on by a brother of the lady he had 
used so ill, and killed ; or, according to another 
account, he was assassinated in Edinburgh." 

The Sound of Mull is entered by a channel between 
the Grey Islands. We soon see the lofty basalt 
cliffs of Artornish, over whose wall-like front a torrent 
of great height falls after heavy rains, though the water 
never reaches the bottom in a body, being caught up 
by the wind and converted into spray. The ruins of 
Artornish Castle stand on a point of the same name, 
one hundred and three feet in height. " In this castle, 
in 1 46 1, John, Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, 
held a parhament of his vassal chiefs, and dictated, as 
an independent prince, a commission to his beloved 
cousins, Ronald, of the Isles, and Duncan, Archdean 
of the Isles, to treat with Edward IV. and James, 
Earl of Douglas, for the conquest of Scotland. This 
was the last parhament held by the Lord of the Isles, 
as in a few years after the title became extinct, and the 
power of island kings passed away forever." We 
passed through a small lake, two and a half miles long, 
called Loch Alline, or " loch of the sun," at the end 
of which is seen the ruins of an old castle, said to have 



Staffa aiid lona. 55 

been built by a female chieftain of the clan Macinres, 
who, according to tradition, paid for it in an equal 
amount of butter. The entire trip, both going to and 
returning from Stafifa and lona, was full of intense 
interest, with picturesque scenery, the ruins of many 
old castles, and the passage of various lakes. Camp- 
bell, the poet, spent some time as tutor in one of these 
romantic places — a grand locality for a poet to garner 
imagery. Dr. Johnson also spent considerable time 
in this vicinity. The ruins of the house where he was 
entertained by Sir Allan Maclean, on a small island, 
can yet be seen. " He declared a Sunday on Inch 
Kenneth was the most delightful Sunday he ever spent 
in his life," and from this island he visited lona in 

1773- 

We reached Staffa, which is about a mile in circum- 
ference and one hundred and twenty-nine feet high. 
Our steamer stopped long enough for us to cHmb the 
basalt rock, whence we get a view of lona and various 
other islands, and the coasts of Mull. The basalt 
columns are regular and lofty. The same character- 
istics in the basalt of Staffa have been traced as in that 
of the Giant's Causeway. The great attraction here 
is Fingal's Cave, which is a marvelous sight; two 



56 FhigaPs Cave. 

hundred and twenty-seven feet long, forty-two broad 
and sixty-six in height, and having at ebb-tide twenty- 
five feet of water. It was a quiet, beautiful day, and, 
as our boatman rowed us into the cave, the walls 
pillared with basalt, in striking forms and grotesque- 
ness of outline, and with effects of color tempered by 
the twihght of the cavern, reflected exquisite shadows 
in the waves. On this still, summer day the cavern, 
doubled in the sea, was a wondrous sight. The 
innermost vault of Fingal's Cave is reached by a slip- 
pery path along the tops of the broken columns, with 
a rope attached by holdfasts to the rock for support. 
All around Staffa the size and disposition of the pillars 
change. At one place, it is said, they are loftier than 
those of the Giant's Causeway. Some were dis- 
appointed at this splendid view, and, as one said, a 
contemplative mind is needed to enjoy it to its fullest 
extent. A solitary shepherd and his family at one 
time lived all the year round at Staffa ; but he entreated 
to be removed, since in the winter gales the hollow 
roar made by the sea through these island caverns, 
sounded so dismally that he could not endure it. 
Bishop Van Troil has been humble enough to admit 
that Fingal's Cavern surpasses the architectural ruins 




il!ii:illl!i!!!lil!;ii:iHi;!liliili!liillii' i',ill,lilil,l,llkli,lli' ilf,"' ' 



lona, 5 7 

of the ancients. Wordsworth writes, on hearing the 
fury which breaks against the pillared capes of Stafifa : 

" Do\vn-bearing with his whole iVtlantic weight 
Of tide and tempest on the Structure's base, 

And flashing upwards to the topmost height, 
Ocean has proved its strength, and of its grace 

In cahns is conscious, finding for his freight 
Of softest music some responsive place." 

Our sail to-day culminated on arrival at lona, eight 
miles from Staffa. The island is three miles long by 
one and a half broad, and contains about two thousand 
acres of land, only six hundred of which are capable 
of cultivation. I cannot better describe the wonderful 
events which began on this island in A. D. 563 than 
by using the interesting account found in a little book 
published by Mr. James W. Miller, of Oban : " The 
rocky islet of lona has filled a marvelous place in the 
history of Christendom. Chosen by some curious 
instinct as a refuge from outward dominion, on this isle 
the Christian faith survived a chaos which swallowed 
up the civilization of Rome. It needs some effort to 
believe that in this desolate place, in its most ancient 
form, was preserved and purified the Christian creed, 



58 Io7ia. 

when all continental lands were overrun with turbu- 
lence, and everywhere else was practiced the most 
dismal superstition. Like the sunset on the neigh- 
boring capes, the light of the world lingered in this 
sanctuary, and saints and apostles carried from, its 
precincts the precepts and practices of Christianity to 
all other countries. Thirteen hundred years ago, 
Columba, with his twelve evangels, landed on the 
beach, and for nigh one thousand years the light they 
kindled remained uneclipsed. The pious, the learned, 
warriors, princes, the poor and the stricken — all turned 
toward lona for counsel, for absolution, for a refuge, 
for alms. Christians sought lona as they afterward 
journeyed to Rome and to Jerusalem ; its shores were 
crowded with pilgrims, the sick and the maimed, 
beseeching a cure or a blessing. And not only was 
lona the single island so blessed — Columba estab- 
lished thirty-two churches in the Western Isles, besides 
twenty-one which were scattered along the coasts of 
the mainland. To those were in time numbered the 
innumerable chapels or cells, relics of which are found 
on almost every isle of the Hebrides. In these dwelt 
solitary monks, away from all temporal allurements, 
and the benefaction of the pious. Isolated by the 



S^. Colli in ba. 59 

sea, they confirmed, by their own Hves, the faith of 
their converts. Eschewing comforts and inured to 
poverty, these m.onks, amid their penances, were 
slaughtered by Norse pirates, and had their holy places 
given to the flames. No legends of Christian life are 
more pathetic, none have been so soon or so cruelly 
forgotten." 

Columba was forty-two years old when he left Ire- 
land, from which he was compelled to flee because of 
the bloodshed which arose on account of copying 
without leave the Psalter of his master, Finian. His 
purity has been recorded in the saying, " that he never 
told a lie nor looked upon a woman." The monks 
who accompanied him adhered to celibacy and no 
woman was allowed to land on lona. Such was the 
superstitious reverence attached to Columba's life that 
it is believed that his old horse knew of his master's 
approaching death, from the fact of its laying its head 
upon his shoulder while he rested near Maclean Cross. 
He copied with his own hand, during his leisure hours, 
three hundred volumes of religious works. When 
death overtook him, on the evening of the 27th of 
June, A. D. 596, he had just reached the ninth verse 
of the Thirty-fourth Psalm. 



6o The Free Church. 

lona became the burial-place of kings and nobles. 
Forty Scottish kings, one king of France, two Irish 
kings, and two of Norway are among those buried here. 
Druidical relics were pointed out to us ; the old cathe- 
dral, in ruins ; the different monuments, with crosses 
and gravestones, the proportion of whose figures and 
the forms of whose decoration indicate a superior taste 
and knowledge of art. One needs days to examine 
the large number of monumental antiquities, and the 
mind can hardly grasp the fact that we stand on such 
sacred ground. For hundreds of years after the land- 
ing of Saint Columba, lona was exposed to the attacks 
of heathen Danes, who, in A. D. 796, set fire to the 
monastery. 

lona has always attracted illustrious visitors, and 
Dr. Johnson wrote in regard to it : " That man is 
little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain 
force upon the plains of Marathon or whose piety 
would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona." 

We returned to Oban by the southern coast of Mull, 
and Kerrera Sound. Some Presbyterian clergymen 
came on board the vessel at one of our stopping 
places, who were pastors in the Free Church of 
Scotland, and their criticism of the Old Kirk ministers 



The Free Church. 6i 

was severe in the extreme; insinuating that they 
were as fond as any one else of taking a httle, if 
not sometimes a good deal, of wine for the stomach's 
sake. The Old Kirk is the State Church of Scot- 
land, and receives its support from the government. 
The Free Church separated from it, and often there 
is one church of each denomination in small ]3laces, 
and sometimes the former has scarcely any members, 
although the good clergyman still continues to hold 
on to the " living." The Free Church ministers of 
Scotland seem proud of their success, and now 
number about as many churches and members as the 
State Church, from which they separated in 1843, on 
account of the State claiming jurisdiction over her 
spiritual affairs. It required great sacrifice of place, 
and even of their bread, for them to take the position 
they did — resign their livings, give up their churches 
and masses, on account of certain proceedings of the 
government affecting their rights and privileges. Dr. 
Chalmers and most of the great leaders of the 
Presbyterian Church of Scotland seceded. The 
pastors of the small, poor churches suffered most ; 
and these men's description of what they endured, for 
conscience' sake — leaving their homes and going 



62 The Free Chwxh. 

forth houseless — showed that they were men of no 
ordinary abiUty. More than 400 ministers went out 
to start new churches without government domination ; 
losing their livings which they had received from 
the establishment. Such sacrifice and pluck makes 
one proud of Scotland and of the Presbyterian min- 
isters; and no wonder the Free Church is taking 
the lead and is the most prosperous and aggressive ! 
We can hardly realize how much we have learned 
and enjoyed, and feel like exclaiming that this has 
truly been a "red-letter day" in our calendar. 







V. 



The Trossachs .... Perth Edinburgh Melrose 

Abbey .... York and its Cathedral .... Cambridge 
AND ITS University. .. .Notes and Incidents. 

Londo7i, Engiaitd. 

OUR ride from Inverness to Edinburgh, a distance 
of about two hundred miles, was through the 
Trossachs, the last one hundred miles being through a 
country abounding in beautiful scenery and the theatre 
of stirring historical events. We passed through 
Grant-town, founded by Sir James Grant. Scotchmen 
claim that Gen. Grant's ancestors were from Scotland. 
When here, he visited the nieces of Robert Burns, at 
Ayr, and one of them said to him, " You are of 
Scotch descent, Gen. Grant ?" He replied, " If so, it 
is so far back that I can hardly claim it ; I am an 
American." She showed him one of Burns' letters to 
63 



64 Blair Athol and Duiikeld. 

his brother . William, pressing upon him to study 
" taciturnity," and she remarked to me that she thought 
Gen. Grant did not need any such advice, for he said 
scarcely anything during his visit. She thought that 
he was the most distinguished American living, and 
prized his photograph, which she showed to his wife; 
and Mrs. Grant promised to send her a better one 
when she returned to the United States, as the one she 
had was not a very good likeness. One of these ladies 
remarked that they had received a visit from ex- Presi- 
dent Fillmore when he was in Scotland, and she 
considered him the finest looking man she had ever 
seen. 

We passed through Blair Athol and Dunkeld, At 
the former place is the noble old castle of Blair, the 
ancient residence of the dukes of that name. It is 
traced back to the thirteenth century. The district 
around is the best hunting ground in Scotland, and is 
the scene of many historical events. From Dunkeld 
Station we obtain a view of Dunkeld Cathedral. The 
place is beautifully situated among wooded hills, on 
the northern bank of the Tay, and is of great antiquity, 
claiming to have been the ecclesiastical capital of 
Scotland during the ninth and tenth centuries. Sir 



Edinburgh. 65 

Walter Scott wrote several songs suggested by historic 
events in this district. 

We afterwards visited Perth. Among the many 
incidents of history related of this place is one stating 
that "In 1545-6 five men and a woman were burned 
here for heresy ; and it may also be said that the 
Reformation in Scotland began in Perth, as John Knox 
preached here some days after his return to the 
country." 

Edinburgh did not disappoint us. It is certainly 
one of the most beautiful cities for natural situation 
that we ever saw. Standing upon three hills, from 
every point the city appears to great advantage. It is 
divided into the old and new towns. We have a 
splendid view from the old Castle, with the sea in the 
distance. The first places visited were the Palace and 
ruined Abbey of Holyrood, the former founded by 
James V. and the latter by King David I., in 11 28. 
The most interesting part of the history of this palace 
— a history of stirring events and well-known per- 
sonages — was the fact of its being the residence 
of Mary Queen of Scots, with whose eventful life 
almost every reader is familiar. We are shown 
the picture gallery, one hundred and fifty feet long 
5 



66 Holy rood. 

by twenty-seven broad, decorated with pictures of 
one hundred and six Scottish sovereigns, " who Uved 
from the time of Fergus, before the Christian era, 
to James VII." Many interesting rehcs of Queen 
Mary are pointed out, among them the private 
stair by which Rizzio's assassins ascended to Mary's 
apartments, and the stain of the blood, said to be 
Rizzio's, at the entrance to the audience chamber. 
It requires some faith to beheve it, as well as many 
other things related in all seriousness. The old palace 
is a splendid specimen of architecture. Queen Mary's 
portraits, seen in both palace and castle, show that she 
was indeed a beautiful woman. The room in which 
James VI. was born, is not more than eight feet square, 
with a recess of about three feet at the window. 
Then there is the crown-room, containing the ancient 
regalia of Scotland — crown, sceptre, sword of state, 
etc. The crown jewels are valued at one million 
dollars. 

The view of the city from the old Castle walls one 
wishes to enjoy for hours. Another view is from 
Arthur's Seat, a mountain rock about eight hundred 
feet high, which seems as if it were in the city, though 
covered with grass and used as a sheep pasture. The 



Abbotsford. 67 

view is a grand one, commanding as it does both city 
and surrounding country. 

On our way to London we visited the ruins of 
Melrose Abbey, about thirty-six miles from Edinburgh 
— larger and more perfect than anything of the kind 
we have yet seen. The finest feature is the great 
eastern window, thirty-seven feet high and sixteen 
broad. We also visited Abbotsford, erected by Sir 
Walter Scott, at a cost of two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. His library consisted of twenty thousand 
volumes, and the dimensions of the room are sixty by 
fifty feet. The drawing-room is richly furnished. The 
walls of the armory are covered with old muskets and 
many other ancient instruments of war, coats of mail, 
etc., arranged by himself In another room are a copy 
of one of his writings, the jewelry and other articles 
presented to him, and in a glass case the clothes worn 
by him just before his death. The situation of the 
house is low, and one cannot see why such a location 
was selected, since the country about abounds in hills 
and beautiful building spots. 

We came to old York, England, to spend the Sabbath 
and worship in the cathedral, regarded as the most 
splendid in Great Britain, whose length is five hundred 



68 York Mmsfer. 

and twenty-four feet, and whose nave is one hundred 
feet m height. Our State House in Columbus is, I 
think, about three hundred feet in length, so that one 
can easily estimate the relative proportions of the 
buildings. This old Cathedral, York Minster, is in the 
form of a cross, and is considered one of the finest in 
the world. It was begun in the seventh century, but 
was principally built in the thirteenth and fourteenth. 
We heard a first-rate total abstinence temperance 
sermon from Rev. Canon Wilberforce, a grandson of 
the late Hon. William Wilberforce, England's great 
reformer and anti-slavery agitator. The sermon had 
the true ring to it, but was evidently not enjoyed by 
the worshipers, as we see everywhere, at hotel tables, 
that nearly all, men and women, drink either ale or 
porter. We noticed printed cards in the seats as fol- 
lows : " Memorial Church to the late Bishop Wilber- 
force. Rector, Rev. Canon Wilberforce. Canon 
Wilberforce is extremely anxious to add one bay of 
the nave, to be built exclusively from the contributions 
of temperance well-wishers, to be surmounted by a 
brass plate, inscribed to this effect. The cost will be 
;^i,ooo, some ;^2oo of which has already been sub- 
scribed by various temperance societies. He earnestly 



The City of York. 69 

solicits the aid of his brethren in the teetotal cause," 
etc. We went in the afternoon to the choral service, 
and if we had not known that we were in a Protestant 
cathedral, we should have supposed we were where 
the full Roman Catholic liturgy was used in all its 
ceremony and display. 

The city of York, from which New York derived 
its name, is the capital of Yorkshire, situated about 
midway between Edinburgh and London, some two 
hundred miles on either side. It was the scene of 
most important events during the successive struggles 
of the Britons, Saxons and Danes. Constantine the 
Great is said to have been born here, A. D. 272. 
" In A. D. 521 King Arthur kept Christmas in York, 
said to be the first celebration of that festival held in 
England." 

The view across the great transept of the Cathedral 
is said to surpass, in architectural effect, that of any 
other Gothic edifice. The deanery, chapels and 
canons' residences give to everything a grandeur and 
lavishment of wealth and a religious display hardly 
realized by those who first enter the old country from 
America. I had heard and read of, and had longed 
to visit this famed cathedral pile, and judge for myself. 



70 ' ^'■ScroobyT 

and find I had received no adequate conception either 
from reading or pictorial illustration. The great east 
window in this cathedral is seventy-five feet high by 
thirty-two feet wide. It is one of the glories of the 
building, and is the largest window in the kingdom 
that retains its original glazing. The contract for 
glazing between the Dean and Chapter and John 
Thornton, of Coventry, is dated 1405. He was to 
receive for his own work four shillings a week, and 
finish the window in three years. There are two hun- 
dred compartments, each about a yard square. The 
subjects in the upper division, above the gallery, are 
from the Old Testament, beginning with the Creation 
and ending with the death of Absalom. All below are 
from the Book of Revelations, except those in the 
lowest tier, which are representations of kings and 
bishops. ■ 

On Monday, after our study of the grand old 
Cathedral, we felt it a pleasure to visit " Scrooby," 
where the first Congregational Church was organized. 
" The three simple points," says Professor Hoppin, of 
Yale College, in his book entitled " Old England," 
" upon which Elder Brewster and his co-religionists 
founded their right of separation from the Established 



Fi7^st Congregational Church. 71 

Church at that time were these : i . The determina- 
tion not to support and attend upon many prescribed 
ecclesiastical forms, not perhaps vested in them- 
selves, but inwoven with ordinances and opinions 
that they esteemed Popish. 2. The claim to the 
right of individual interpretation of the Scriptures. 
3. The assertion of the right to exclude immoral 
persons from their Church Communion. These 
points of difference compelled them to be separatists ; 
not only driving them to a separation from the 
Church of England, but from their native soil, and 
finally compelled them to become ' strangers and 
pilgrims ' on a totally new and foreign shore. The 
Pilgrims under Brewster were mostly unknown — 
Lincolnshire ditchers and plain Nottinghamshire 
farmers, with now and then a yeoman and a man 
of family and education. They were, however, 
sound, honest, thoughtful Englishmen. The Church 
thus established was organized in 1602, and was the 
model of all our ' Congregational ' churches. They 
went first to Amsterdam, afterward returned to Eng- 
land in the Speedwell, and finally embarked in the 
Mayfloiver from Plymouth. These were the ' Pilgrim 
Fathers.' Such were the men who were gathered 



72 First Congregational Church. 

together in that small, despised, religious communion, 
and who came to the new world to plant, uncon- 
sciously, and, as a natural result of their religious 
views, the principles of a free republic." We find 
here only the lonely and decayed manor-house 
stables, in which Brewster preached, now occupied 
as a house. We were shown his pulpit, library (" a 
bit of a cupboard," as the old lady who showed us 
around expressed it), and a niche in the wall where 
he kept his wine; and in the buildings some carved 
wood-work and ornamental beams, covered with dust 
and cobwebs, which belonged to the Archiepiscopal 
Palace. There are only about two hundred inhabi- 
tants here, and a small church edifice, where Epis- 
copal service is held once every Sabbath, the rector 
receiving ^loo (or about five hundred dollars a 
year). The manor-house is in the midst of marshy 
surroundings, " and to think of what vast influences 
and activities have flowed from this quiet and 
almost hstless scene, one has strange feelings." Do 
you wonder we enjoyed the contrast with York 
Cathedral ? 

Our ride from Scrooby to Cambridge gave us an 
idea of Old England's country scenery, seeming, as 



Rural Scenery. 73 

it were, through a city dotted with small farms like 
garden-spots ; with their little patches of grass, wheat, 
barley, oats (no maize anywhere to be seen), garden 
vegetables and lavender. Very few handsome farm- 
houses are to be seen, such as can be met with on 
most of the roads leading from Columbus. The 
large towns and cities, as you approach them, look 
like new brick-kilns just opened; for the buildings 
are of brick, and the roofs of clay tile, making 
everything appear red and "bricky." The most 
beautiful and attractive places are the manses or 
rectories (or, as we should call them, parsonages), 
attached to the churches. We noticed this alike in 
Ireland, Scotland and England. The grounds about 
these buildings are spacious, laid out with taste, 
surrounded by hedges, and adorned with vines, 
plants and flower-beds. We thought it no wonder 
that these " livings," or rectorships, should be sought 
for and purchased by those desiring an opportunity 
to cultivate their taste, and study, and live a life of 
ease and pleasure. 

We stopped at Peterborough to see another old 
cathedral, measuring four hundred and seventy-one 
feet in length by one hundred and eighty in breadth. 



74 Cambridge University. 

Here were buried Queen Catharine and Mary- 
Queen of Scots — the latter now removed to West- 
minster Abbey. Peterborough Abbey was destroyed 
about 807, and restored in 966, A. D. 

We passed Huntingdon, the birth-place of Crom- 
well. Cambridge, where we stopped over night, is 
celebrated for its great University. There are seven- 
teen different colleges, with separate corporations 
and officers, holding the buildings and libraries and 
large funds in money, lands, etc. Trinity, King's, 
St. John's and several other colleges were visited, in 
whose libraries, among other treasures, we were shown 
the original manuscript of Milton's " Paradise Lost," 
and also the original of the " Old Covenant," signed 
in blood. The University library has half a million 
volumes — one of the earliest Bibles, written in the sixth 
century, also " The History of Troy," translated by 
Caxton and printed by him about the year 1475, 
and many ancient manuscripts. There are two thou- 
sand students in the colleges, the grounds of several 
of which extend across the River Cam, from which 
Cambridge received its name. The large old trees 
arching the walls, the lawns and flower-beds and 
river, give to all a delightful appearance, and one 



Cambiidge University. -~ 75 

could easily dream away his time under the shady 
boughs by the banks of the stream, forgetful of high 
honors to be obtained by hard study. In one of the 
large courts of Trinity College, two hundred feet 
square, with a lovely fountain in the center, surrounded 
by flower-beds and a velvety lawn extending to the 
stone buildings, four stories in height, occupied by the 
students, we noticed at the base of each window a 
wooden box painted green, about a foot high and the 
width of the window, full of scarlet geraniums and 
other showy plants in full blossom. Here were 
hundreds of windows, from the first to the fourth 
story, around the inclosure, lighting up the old dingy 
stone buildings wonderfully. The rooms of the 
students were elegantly furnished. Each student has a 
sleeping-room and parlor. Their meals are ordered 
as in a hotel, and some of them, at eleven o'clock 
A. M., were just taking their breakfasts. Everything 
here appears to indicate that even a student in moder- 
ate circumstances could enjoy the advantages of these 
grand old institutions. One young man informed us 
that, with reasonable demands, the expense might be 
limited to from fifteen to eighteen hundred dollars a 
year. 



76 Cambridge University. 

So many colleges in one place cause great rivalries 
among the students. Trinity College boasts, among 
her graduates, of Bacon and Newton, whose 
portraits, in full length, together with a large num- 
ber of other distinguished men, grace the apart- 
ment where so many have supplied the wants of 
the inner man. The old dining-hall looks like a 
chapel, with its large Gothic windows and high Gothic 
ceiling. Christ's College claims Milton as one of its 
graduates. They show you here his full-length 
portrait, and in the grounds the old mulberry-tree that 
he planted. These seventeen colleges, with their 
various buildings, are of stone, and situated in different 
parts of the city, although in one locality several are 
not far apart. These, with the University church, 
and various other old churches, give to the city an 
appearance of one great educational center, as 
certainly it is one of the greatest in the world. 

We have now been through Ireland, Wales, Scotland 
and a part of England, running up through the last 
two on the east and returning on the west side to 
London. We could not have wished for more 
delightful weather, having been detained only one day 
by rain. We were advised to "marry to an umbrella" 



Hotels. 77 

on our arrival, but as yet we have not done so. We 
have found hotels at moderate prices with but one 
exception — at the Maclean's Hotel, Glasgow. It is a 
splendid hotel — almost equal to the Windsor in New 
York. Our arrival was on Saturday. The guests 
were few, and no regular dinner was served. We 
ordered a plain dinner and a cup of tea, and when 
our bill was sent in, on Monday morning, dinner was 
charged at $1.12 each, and tea at fifty cents a cup, 
making the entire charge for the meal $1.62 each, 
with everything else in proportion. At the Waverley 
Dining-rooms, in Edinburgh, the charge for a better 
cup of tea was 2d. or four cents, while other things 
were equally reasonable. The less pretentious hotels 
were generally our choice. Sometimes they were even 
ancient looking, though within we found them neat, 
hospitable and clean, always with flowers adorning the 
apartments and with beautiful httle yards laid 
out in beds of flowering plants, and sometimes 
the smaller hotels were covered with clambering 
roses, rivaling in size even Underwood's Chro- 
motel and Marshal Neil, and in the greatest pro- 
fusion. The hotel at which we are stopping here, 
'•'The Old Castle" ("The Bull" is the popular 



78 ^Hotels. 

hotel), is antiquated enough. The building was 
erected in 1620, and is so quaint and odd that we 
begged a photograph of it. They supply us with 
the nicest French rolls we ever ate, and everything 
else is abundant and good; charges about two dol- 
lars a day. One can spend a "mint" of money if 
he chooses, and Americans are generally so lavish 
that the hotel people and everybody else consider 
them fit subjects for plunder. Some Germans who 
were traveling with us, and made no previous bar- 
gain for their entertainment at a different hotel from 
ours, showed us their bills, which were more than 
double our own. I do not think we have seen men 
as managers or conductors in the office or bar (they 
are both one) in any hotel. No men are about 
except " Boots " and the table- waiters, who are 
habited in black dress suits, white cravats, and 
with hair oiled and parted in the middle. You 
would think they were the elite of the place, just 
ready for a ball. Women receive you at the door 
cordially, and sometimes gracefully. Women show 
you to your rooms ; women make out your bills, 
and women deal out the ale, porter, brown stout, 
whiskey, etc. There are said to be one hundred 



Hotels. 79 

thousand beautiful girls in England employed in 
saloons, tending the bars. The handsomest and most 
graceful are selected, as an attraction to the young 
men; for, as we have said, the office and bar-room 
are one, and all classes resort thither to smoke and 
drink. At one place in London we saw from 
twenty to thirty girls in a large and brilliant restaur- 
ant, all dressed neatly in black, and at least one 
hundred young men smoking and drinking, while the 
girls served out to them their whiskey, brown stout, 
and other drinks. One young Englishman with 
whom we traveled, and who seemed anxious to 
criticise Americans, and to touch some tender spot, 
said: "You have the Mormons." "Yes," Dr. H. 
replied; "but they are mostly increased by immigra- 
tion from Europe." The Englishman further said: 
"You have women's rights." "Yes," said Dr. H. ; 
" but we should consider it indelicate to have our 
women deal out liquors and tend bar ; the ' lady- 
waiter' saloons are closed, and both proprietors and 
waiters are marched off to jail." The Englishman sub- 
sided. Women run the hotels, and do it well, so that 
one would think that they were the proprietors them- 
selves. Cannot they do anything they undertake ? 



iiiiSi^iiiiSSiiiiiiS^i^iii^^ 



VI. 



First View of London The American Minister 

Westminster Abbey and Tombs of the 

Poets. .. .Houses of Parliament and Buckingham 
Palace . . English Equipages and Public Parks. 

London. 

OUR ride from Cambridge to London was 
through a flat, uninteresting country. We 
are now in this grand metropoHs, the most interest- 
ing to Americans of all the great cities of the Old 
World, from the fact that it is the largest city of 
the civilized world, and contains a population of 
about four millions, and covers a space of about 
twelve miles by ten. After seeking a homelike 
resting-place with Mr. and Mrs. Burt, where friends 
in Columbus advised us to stop, we started out, 
with a letter to our United States Minister to the 
Court of Saint James, Hon. John Welsh, who 
80 




^ 



Westminster Abbey. 8i 

received us cordially, inquiring after Columbus 
acquaintances, and offering to give us tickets of 
admission to Parliament and to the Queen's Stable 
at Buckingham Palace, and any other favor he could 
grant us. Our first visit was, of course, to West- 
minster Abbey, with its wonderful aisles, arches, and 
forests of noble columns. Historians have fixed the 
era of the first Abbey in the sixth century. The 
interior of the Abbey is three hundred and seventy- 
five feet long ; breadth, two hundred feet ; height, 
from pavement to inner roof, one hundred and one 
feet ; and to sky-light, or lantern, as it is called, 
one hundred and forty feet. It is well we visited the 
other celebrated English Cathedrals first. Although 
York Minster is superior in architecture, this is more 
historic and interesting, with its nine chapels, contain- 
ing tablets and reclining statues and the tombs of 
kings and queens from the tenth century. But to an 
American these are of little interest in comparison 
with the tombs and statues and inscriptions in the 
Poet's Corner — of Shakspeare, Chaucer, Campbell, 
Thomson, Wordsworth, Dickens, Bulwer, Charles 
Kingsley, and, indeed, many of the most prominent 
British writers and poets. The architecture of the 
6 



82 House of Parliament, 

Chapel of Henry VII. is a feature of general admira- 
tion — the chapel containing the magnificent tomb 
of the founder, and those also of Queen Elizabeth 
and Mary Queen of Scots. The gold-mosaiced altar 
tomb of Edward the Confessor stands in the chapel 
of Saint Edward, together with the coronation chairs 
in which every sovereign of England since Edward 
I. has been crowned. Here, indeed, one may spend a 
day with great interest. 

The Houses of Parliament are near Westminster 
Abbey, and help to add, by their two lofty towers 
and the elaborate finish of the immense stone 
structure, to the contrast and effect of the old walls 
and grand buttresses of the Cathedral. To vary the 
scene, we make a visit to Buckingham Palace, the 
London residence of the Queen — an immense, plain, 
stone building, which looks as low and flat as our 
I Ohio Penitentiary, and not as attractive in architect- 
ural style. We should judge that it is as large as 
the latter building, and only occupied when the 
Queen visits London. 

Everywhere we see the immense expense attend- 
ant upon keeping up royalty, and impressing upon 
the people its wonderful power and dignity. We 



|!illllll!llll|!||||»ll!l!llf||||||||!l!(1il!l|i>!lll|lillll 



Tiiiiii^^ 



ii|'in>iriiii'iiiii!'f ' '!((» 




4-01 



S^. James' Park. ^-i) 

visit Marlborough House, the residence of the 
Prince of Wales, and then St. James' Park and 
Kensington Gardens, large parks, — the former con- 
taining about ninety acres, with handsome drives 
and lawns, enriched with lofty trees. The lake is a 
famous skating place in the winter, and the park is 
a delightful resort for children and others. This is 
considered one of the greatest ornaments in the 
metropoHs, and we had a fine opportunity to view 
the splendid English turn-outs, with their coaches 
and four, with various out-riders, dressed in all 
styles of livery, with rosettes on their hats, and 
white knee-breeches. The horses and carriages do 
not look so stylish as those you see in Central 
Park, New York, on a pleasant afternoon ; and 
what greatly mars the looks of the horses is the 
cutting off of about half the tail of each, which 
gives them all such a bobby appearance. We have 
not seen a horse since we came into Great Britain 
but what had his tail thus mutilated. We asked 
several times, " Why do you cut off the horses' tails 
in this way ? " The only answer is, " Because it 
makes them look tidy." 



VII, 



London Tower Kew Gardens The National Gal- 
lery. . . .A Royal Display and Garden Fete. . . .The 
Queen's Stables. . . .The London Slums. . . .The Pul- 
pit Orators of London. .. .Curiosities at Kensing- 
ton Museum .... Environs of London .... Royal 
Academy. . . .Bank of England. 

London. 

IT takes some days to realize that one is in a 
city of nearly a million more inhabitants than 
the whole State of Ohio contains. There is such a 
mass of people that the inclination arises to exclaim, 
^ " I am a mere bubble, a speck, on this immense 
sea of existence ! I am worthless and insignificant 
in the eye of God." We walked the streets for 
miles, and mounted the tops of omnibuses, in order 
to see the prominent buildings, etc., of the city. If 
our High Street Omnibus Company would have 



The Tower of London. 85 

their omnibuses arranged, as here, to carry as many 
or more on the top than on the inside, it would be 
a saving of the number of horses and drivers 
employed, and make an attractive, pleasant place 
on which to ride. We then w^ound our way to the 
" Tower." We had read about it in our youth, 
and wondered what such a place of torture and 
imprisonment looked like. Instead of one great 
tower, as we supposed, it consists of a cluster of 
houses, towers, barracks, armories, warehouses and 
prison-like edifices, situated on the Thames. It is 
the ancient fortress and gloomy state prison of 
London, and historically the most interesting spot in 
England. The Normans began t^ie erection of the 
"Tower" in 1079. We saw twenty-two equestrian 
figures, in full equipment of armor, consisting of 
kings, queens and old warriors, w^hich give one an 
idea of the ancient manner of protection against 
lance-thrust, arrow and bullet, and carry one back 
into the past. One cannot remember the long list 
of the distinguished and the notorious who, during 
the past eight centuries, have been beheaded and 
have perished within these walls. The implements 
of torture, the beheading block, and thousands of 



S6 Kew Gardens. 

other ancient things pertaining to war and imprison- 
ment, are seen — enough to give a man the night- 
mare for the balance of his Hfe. There can be no 
sadder spot on earth. The crown jewels, which are 
preserved in a glass case, protected by a strong 
iron cage, were shown us. Among them is Queen 
Victoria's crown, adorned with two thousand seven 
hundred and eighty-three diamonds. All of the 
regalia in this glass case, about ten feet in diameter, 
is valued at from fifteen to twenty millions of 
dollars. 

On another day we were glad to go some ten or 
twelve miles into the country and visit Kew Gar- 
dens. The flower-beds, hot-houses and conserva- 
tories are numerous, where ferns, orchids and cacti 
are particularly interesting. Immense sums have 
been laid out here by the Government, and the 
gardens are kept up by employing most celebrated 
botanists, who obtain rare plants from all parts 
of the world. The Palm House, reaching to a 
height of sixty feet, cost one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. The large Fern House contains 
one thousand different varieties of ferns, of which 
there are sixty varieties of adiantums. The gar- 



The National Gallery. 87 

dens are seventy-five acres in extent, beautifully laid 
out in flower-beds, and present a gay and lovely 
appearance; while two hundred and forty acres are 
laid out in walks, with rows of trees, where one 
could spend days in admiration and enjoyment. 

Our visit to the National Gallery was one long to 
be remembered. This gallery is one of the finest in 
the world. There are one hundred and ten paintings 
in oil by Turner, and even more landscape sketches 
in water colors by the same master (the latter sketches 
being loaned by Ruskin). I do not, as a general 
thing, like his paintings. They are too indistinct and 
shadowy and fairy-like; but who can help praising 
them when Ruskin considers him the greatest of 
English painters ? One of the most beautiful, as 
the sun came out and shone suddenly upon it, was 
his "Bridge and Palace of CaHgula," — to which 
bridge (the work and caprice of the tyrant) old Sue- 
tonius has the following reference : 

" Bajarum medium intervallum Puteolanas ad moles ponte 
conjunxit." 

The picture, as we have said, is an exquisite one: 
on the left are seen the ruins of the palace, and on the 



88 The National Gallery. 

extreme right, in the distance, the shores of Baiae; 
children are sporting with goats in the foreground, 
while the sun is rising behind the ruins. Caligula, in 
order to confute a prophesy made by Thrasyllus, a 
mathematician, declaring that he would no more be 
Emperor than he could drive his chariot across the 
Bay of Baiae, had constructed a bridge of boats from 
the mole at Puteoli across the bay, upward of three 
Roman miles, which he actually both rode and drove 
over. The Bridge of Caligula was necessarily tempo- 
rary ; but Turner has assumed in his picture a struct- 
ure similar to that of the mole, extending completely 
across the bay, and has in his MS. poem, " The Falla- 
cies of Hope," given the following description of it : 

" What now remains of all the mighty bridge 
Which made the Lucrine Lake an inner pool, 
Caligula ! but massive fragments, left 
As monuments of doubt and ruined hopes 
Yet gleaming in the morning's ray, that tell 
How Baise's shore was loved in times gone by ? " 

The paintings in the grand gallery are among the 
finest in the world, comprising works by Raphael, 
Correggio, Rubens, Murillo, Rembrandt, Leonardo, 



A Garden Party. 89 

Titian, Wilson, Reynolds, West, and others, many 
of which are the originals of the fine engravings 
given in "Art Treasures of England," a recent 
publication, and one largely subscribed for in Colum- 
bus. Some of the paintings cost seventy thousand 
dollars. The funds to keep up the Gallery are 
provided by Parliament, about fifty thousand dollars 
a year being granted. One needs to spend a month 
here to fully enjoy and appreciate such a vast and 
rare collection. 

One day, in passing up Pall Mall, near Marl- 
borough House, we saw a great crowd gathering. 
Inquiring the cause, we were informed that there was 
to be an afternoon " garden party " at the Prince 
of Wales's residence, and that the Queen would be 
there, coming, as she always does, in great state 
from Windsor Castle. Of course, we stopped with 
the crowd. Great preparations seemed to be going 
on. First, about one hundred police, in full uniform, 
marched in through the Pall Mall gate; then a 
company of British red-coated soldiers; then a band 
of musicians, about one hundred in number; then 
came the Prince of Wales, preceding the Princess 
with their three children, looking as sweet and pretty 



90 Royal Magnificence. 

as those of other people \ then, for two or three hours, 
came the British aristocracy in splendid equipages; 
the foreign ministers ; Gladstone ; Baron Rothschild 
(an old, decrepit man), walking; the Duke of 
Connaught, the Queen's third son; the Earl of 
Granville; Duchess of Welhngton; Earl and Countess 
of Dudley, the latter being very beautiful. These 
and many more were pointed out to us. Soon 
great excitement- was everywhere manifest, and two 
knights on horseback came riding up the street at 
full speed, carrying a lance with a scarlet flag. Then 
a dozen gay outriders in half armor, looking like 
our Knights of Pythias; then came the grand state 
carriage, with four gray horses and various footmen, 
and everybody became aware that it was the Queen, 
with her daughters, the Princess Louise (wife of the 
Marquis of Lome) and Princess Beatrice. A shght 
cheer went up as the Queen passed. She is a robust, 
red-faced, well-preserved woman of about sixty, look- 
ing not over forty or fifty, and has nine children, 
all living — five sons and four daughters. The 
sons seem to inherit their mother's avarice and love 
of power, and the daughters Prince Albert's gener- 
osity and mental capacity. For two or three hours, 



The Qiieeii's Stables. 91 

nearly as fast as they could enter the gate, came 
the splendid equipages, — mostly open carriages, — 
giving us a fine opportunity to see the ladies in 
full dress. Many of the young ladies were in white 
Swiss or white silk and satin. Most of the older 
married ladies were in plain black silk. Only a few 
were on foot. One lady alone, with a footman 
behind, drove a pair of gray horses, in a Victoria 
phaeton. 

We made a visit to the Queen's stables, at Buck- 
ingham Palace, in which are kept about one hundred 
horses, for the use of the royal estabHshment in Lon- 
don, and about the same number are kept at the 
Windsor Palace, all of the best blood that can be 
obtained, with gold and silver-mounted harness and 
carriages to match. The great State carriage of 
George III., which is used only on coronation 
occasions, looks like one of Bamum's grand parade 
band chariots. It is one hundred years old, weighs 
four tons, and cost over fifty thousand dollars. On 
the doors and sides are some original paintings, by 
Cipriani, which are valued highly. Some sixty men 
are employed as grooms about these stables in 
London. The Queen's own horses are nine cream- 



92 Coffee Taverns, 

colored stallions, and are used only on State occa- 
sions. At Windsor Castle she keeps the same 
number of gray horses. All the horses in the stable 
but these have " bob tails." 

Our landlord asked us to accompany him to a 
different scene from those we had witnessed during 
the day, and about nine o'clock at night we were 
divested of watches, money and jewelry, and started 
% out to see the " slums " of London. Such squalor 
and poverty were heart-rending; but the saddest 
sight was at the drinking-places. There were more 
women drinking and drunk than men, and they 
were altogether the most boisterous and belligerent. 
We saw here so many to remind us of Dickens's 
characters, as portrayed in his books — characters so 
often selected from the poorer and lower classes. 
Every now and then we would come across a 
temperance saloon with bathing-rooms, or " coffee 
taverns," as they call them in England, showing that 
benevolent people are at work. The temperance ad- 
vocates have formed large corporations, called " Coffee 
Tavern Companies," of prominent men of wealth and 
reputation, to operate these taverns in different parts 
of London. The one we visited, called the " Morton 



Coffee Taverns. 93 

Arms," has seven branches, called " The Glass House," 
" The Market Tavern," " The Temple Arms," " The 
Tom Hughes," "The Cross Keys," "The Phoenix 
Tavern," "The Red Boot Tavern," — curious names to 
us. Other houses are in course of adaptation all 
through London. The design is to make these places 
attractive to working people, and they generally seek 
a place near some liquor-selling tavern where the 
working men congregate, and their intention is to 
make the temperance taverns more attractive than 
the others, and offer a " bill of fare " at lower prices. 
Here is the "price-list" and notices on the bill of 
fare : 

Cocoa, per cup i d. = 2 c. 

Coffee, " I d. = 2 c. 

Tea, small cup, per cup i d. = 2 c. 

Tea, large cup, " 2 d. = 4 c. 

Small plate of beef 2 d. = 4 c. 

Large " " " 4 d. = 8 c. 

Small " " ham 2 d. = 4 c. 

Large " " " 4 d. = 8 c. 

Seed and currant cake, per slice i d. = 2 c. 

Bread and butter ^ d. = i c. 

New milk, per glass i d. =: 2 c. 

Boiled eggs, etc., etc., etc. 



94 Practical Temperance Work. 

The Company will also supply lemonade, gingerade, soda water 
and other aerated drinks, in bottles and by the glass, at i d. and 

2d. 

Good cigars to be had at 2 d. 

N. B. Non-alcoholic beverages, i>^ d. per bottle. 

Working men may bring their own meals and eat them on the 
premises. 

Everything good and clean. 

Out-door trade done. Customers bringing their own jugs or 
cans will be supplied. 

I have been particular in describing the above on 
account of the success attending these taverns in 
attracting the working men and their families, and as a 
financial investment. Gladstone, the Lord Chancel- 
lor, and the leading reformers are interesting them- 
selves in this good work. Here is something practical 
for us at home to adopt, where intemperance is becom- 
ing a national disgrace. These coffee taverns, I am 
told, become self-supporting. Reading-rooms, smok- 
ing-rooms, and everything to entice young men away 
from drinking-places, are made as attractive as possible. 
Many acquire the habit of drinking from visiting these 
places, because they know they are expected to patron- 
ize the drinking saloons by drinking themselves; if 
they enjoy their hospitality, they must take a little 



spurge on. 95 

alcoholic stimulus to repay them. I wish our Young 
Men's Christian Association, in connection with look 
ing after the spiritual interests of the young men, 
would connect reading-rooms, bath-rooms, and an 
attractive gymnasium with their rooms; and thereby 
show an interest in providing suitable amusements and 
entertainments to draw them away from gambling- 
rooms and disreputable places. Many of our young 
men avoid religious meetings. Let us have no com- 
pulsory features about them, but make the rooms 
cheerful, social and free from anything wrong, but 
have nothing to repel the class who need them 
most. 

On Sunday our first thought was to go and hear 
Spurgeon, and we were fortunate in finding him at 
home, and able to preach. He is suffering terribly 
with the gout, and is unable to preach often. His 
great church is in the form of an amphitheater, 
with two galleries extending around the entire 
room, in the rear as well as front of the platform, 
and will hold, when packed, about eight thousand. 
Every seat was occupied to-day, indicating some 
six thousand present. First come upon the platform 
about one hundred boys from his orphan school, 



g6 Spurge 01U 

and take their seats, and then follow the officers of 
the church. Over the platform is a high pulpit, 
surrounded by a railing, which Mr. Spurgeon, soon 
entering, occupies and commences the services at 
once with an earnest prayer. He is a rather short, 
thick-set man, and to look at him one wonders 
whence such great influence and power for good 
can come ; but when he gets thoroughly warmed in 
his discourse, you find yourself in full sympathy 
with the great audience, for all around you are 
men and women weeping, showing that he knows 
how to touch human sympathies and well under- 
stands human nature. In referring to some people 
that were always despondent, he said : " They 
always squeeze the juices of sorrow out of the 
clusters of Eshcol." The sermon was about an 
hour long, and delivered entirely without notes. 
Earnest, eloquent, and full of beautiful expression, 
he was not by any means the coarse, sledge-ham- 
mer man I expected to see. After service he 
invited all members of churches to unite with them 
in celebrating the Lord's Supper in the chapel. 
There are about five thousand members of his 
church, and one of the deacons pointed out to 



Canon Farrar. 97 

me a poor, decrepit old lady, who was the first 
one on the Hst of church members. 

In the afternoon w^e all went to St. Margaret's 
Church to hear Canon Farrar, who has, by his pub- 
lished sermons on eternal punishment, drawn the 
attention of people toward him. He is a fine-look- 
ing man. He preached a good sermon, directed 
mostly to young men, condemning the frivolous habits 
and fast lives of the young men of England who, 
having inherited wealth and position, yet made it a 
curse to them on account of their dissipation. We 
have heard Dr. Parker, the leading Congregational 
minister, and Dr. Cumming, the prominent Presbyte- 
rian clergyman, and Dr. Punshon, Methodist, and 
could not but feel that they are more than equaled 
by Bishop Simpson, Dr. Phillips Brooks of Boston, 
Dr. John Hall, Dr. Storrs, Beecher and others in 
America. 

We find Americans everywhere, and in greater 
numbers, it is said, than ever before. Dr. Parker, I 
think, said to us, " You Americans, I suppose, have 
come over to tell us how hard the times are in 
America." There are so many things of interest in 
London that one wants at least a month to see them. 
7 



98 Kensington Museum. 

We have been here about ten days, and have not yet 
visited all the places of special interest, such as the 
Natural History Gallery, etc. We were deUghted in 
spending a day at Kensington Museum, where, 
among other objects of interest, is the Forster Collec- 
tion, which contains the original manuscripts of 
Dickens's works — Oliver Twist, Old Curiosity Shop, 
American Notes, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, David 
Copperfield, Dombey and Son, and many others. 
Nearly one-half, or more, of each line had been erased 
and re-written, showing with what care Dickens pre- 
pared his works for publication. It was very difficult 
for me to read them, even with a glass, and no one 
but printers could do it, for they seem to have a sort 
of intuitive power to read poor scribbhng and make 
out what one wants to say. There are also original 
letters or manuscripts of William Cowper, Keats, 
Thomas Campbell, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, 
Daniel De Foe, author of " Robinson Crusoe," John 
Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, Addison, Thomas Moore, 
John Hampden's letter to his friend. Sir John Elliott, 
at his lodging in the Tower, and many others. The 
collection of paintings is one of the most valuable in 
London, and has not been here long, but attracts 



Rich77io?id Hill. 



99 



great attention. The admission to this Museum is 
free three times a week. 

We made an excursion to the environs of London. 
In every direction are most attractive places, none 
more so than Hampton Court and Richmond Hill, 
with its park of three thousand acres, on the bank 
of the Thames, thirteen miles from London. At 
the latter, one gets one of the finest views of the 
beautiful country, with London and Windsor Castle 
in the distance. We take a carriage and ride 
through Twickenham, past many delightful places 
occupied by lords and ladies ; their names I do not 
care to remember. Pope's villa and Lady Russell's 
are the most prominent. We ride through Bushy 
Park, a splendid avenue of horse-chestnut trees, one 
mile long— the park stretching away in green glades 
and small lakes on either side. We see all about 
picnic parties enjoying the cool shade and velvety 
lawns, and notice some boys starting up and chasing 
a herd of deer. The flowers, covering the grove of 
horse-chestnut trees in May, are said to be a most 
attractive sight, filling the air with fragrance. 

As we pass into the grounds connected with 
Hampton Court, it looks, all around us and in the 



loo HamptoJi Court. 

distance, like a wild tract of land with immense 
trees, as are some of those beautiful pasture-grounds, 
interspersed with oak openings, in Madison County, 
Ohio. The day was warm, and the sun shone out 
brightly. The walks were delightful. Most of the 
English parks seem to be left as near their natural 
state as possible, but of late years more attention is 
paid to landscape gardening; and here you come 
suddenly upon flower-beds of every artistic shape 
and every bright, beautiful flower that could be 
imagined, arranged along the walks under the yew 
trees in every direction, almost as far as the eye can 
reach ; here are arches of trees, and here flowers 
and lawns, and artificial lakes and water-courses, 
covered with water-lilies and white water-fowl; with 
the sober, majestic, red-brick walls of the palace, 
covering eight acres, in the background, and with 
three thousand five hundred and ninety-six acres of 
park in view. It presents an appearance of grandeur 
and beauty long to be remembered. We enter the 
palace, which has been occupied by nine different 
sovereigns. Its long suits of apartments seem to be 
the gathering-place of historical antiquities, paintings, 
old furnished parlors and dressing-rooms (the State 



Ha7Jipto?i Court loi 

Bed-room among them), with the ancient beds and 
furniture. The whole number of pictures at Hamp- 
ton Court is about one thousand. The palace garden 
has a vinery where there is a grape-vine over ninety 
years old, which has yielded three thousand bunches 
of black Hamburg grapes in one year. The principal 
stem is forty-two inches round at the base, and is 
over one hundred and ten feet long. We spent a 
whole day here, and could not but say, "In what 
other country could one find the same perfection of 
gardening ? " The grass was soft and green, and the 
dark shade of the yew and brown beech contrasted 
finely with the fighter verdure of the oak and the 
smooth-leaved, elegant liirie and rougher elm. I can- 
not describe the scene; it was enough to enjoy it. 
The palace was originally built by Cardinal Wolsey, 
who was also its architect. "The historian relates 
that at Hampton Court were two hundred and eighty 
beds of silk for royal and noble guests." 

From these historical antiquities and old paintings, 
one turns with delight to the exhibition of the Royal 
Academy — all modern pictures. This is the one 
hundred and tenth exhibition, opening in May and 
closing on the first of August. Here are about fifteen 



I02 The Royal Academy. 

hundred paintings and some one hundred pieces of 
sculpture, the Hst of exhibitors numbering about nine 
hundred. No artist is allowed to exhibit more than 
eight different works; none which have already been 
publicly exhibited in London being admitted, and no 
copies of any kind. The Academy was established 
over one hundred years ago, by George III. Its 
principal objects are the maintenance of a school or 
academy of design for gratuitous instruction of stu- 
dents in art, and an annual exhibition, free to all 
artists of distinguished merit. It is a private society, 
supporting a school open to the people from its own 
resources, without any grant of public money. The 
first President was Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Presi- 
dent now [1878] is Sir Daniel McNee. Among the 
paintings, of course, are some of the first productions 
of modern art ; and to me, not a connoisseur in such 
matters, it seemed a rich day's enjoyment to be where 
I could examine so many works by the artists of the 
later school, and judge for myself whether they were 
good or not. I must confess that, although many of 
the works by the old masters may be of rare worth, 
as showing the history and progress of art, yet I 
cannot see the merit which is often attributed to them. 



Batik of England. 103 

However, in this I plead ignorance. The paintings 
were of every conceivable design. Bierstadt had one 
on exhibition which was much admired, entitled 
" Estes Park, Colorado, U. S." 

We could not cross over to the Continent until w^e 
had visited the greatest bank in the world, the Bank 
of England, with its one thousand clerks, and its low 
but attractive stone buildings, covering three acres. 
The area in the center is planted with shrubs and 
ornamented with a fountain. There is a valuable 
library for the use of the clerks. The value of bank- 
notes in circulation is about one hundred millions of 
dollars. The specie or bullion in its vaults amounts 
to one hundred and thirty millions of dollars. It 
pays interest on deposits, as do all the banks in Great 
Britain. The interest paid is from one to two and 
a half per cent. We see no bank-bills in England 
except the Bank of England notes, which go at par 
anywhere in Europe. The Bank buildings here all 
look old and dingy. It is said that the bankers and 
rich business men abhor fresh, new and showy fronts 
and counters for offices; but the older and more 
begrimed they are the better, as an indication of an 
Englishman's substantial character and his aversion 



104 Off for the Continent. 

to change. A visit to some of these old commercial 
houses, whose monetary transactions are counted by 
milHons, is quite interesting. The firm that I had 
business with seemed to boast of having rooms for 
their office which had been occupied by Queen Anne 
Boleyn. 

It is said that over eighteen hundred children are 
bom in London every week, and that there are over 
twelve hundred deaths. 

We leave now for the Continent, feeling that we 
have had a hurried, and therefore somewhat unsatis- 
factory visit. 




VIII. 

Eminent British Divines* Punshon Pulsford 

WlLBERFORCE. 

" London, 

WE have heard in Great Britain eight notable 
preachers — Punshon, Pulsford, Wilberforce, 
Parker, Gumming, Farrar, Stanley and Spurgeon. I 
will now give you my impressions of the first three, 
reserving the remaining five for my next letter. 

Dr. W. Morley Punshon was in Dublin on Sunday, 
June 23d (a day which we spent there), in attendance 
upon the M. E. Gonference of Ireland. He preached 
in the " large Goncert Hall " of the International 



*The present letter and the following one were kindly furnished by 
Rev. R. G. Hutchins, D. D., Pastor of the First Congregational Church, 
Columbus, Ohio, who is my pastor, and who was my traveling companion 
during the pleasant journeyings of which the present volume is the record. 

105 



io6 Emme7it British Divines. 

Exhibition Palace of 1853 — a hall which, with its 
wings, will seat between three and four thousand 
people. The service was to commence at half-past 
three o'clock p. m., and before three o'clock the 
entrances were thronged with people. We found the 
hall hterally packed ; for be it known unto you that 
Dr. Punshon is generally esteemed by his denomina- 
tion in Great Britain as their most eloquent preacher. 

Barely room enough for the speaker was left on the 
stage by the time of his arrival. He is a large-framed, 
heavy man, perfectly erect, with full, red face and dark- 
brown curly hair, which is wanting on the top of the 
head. He is perhaps fifty years old. Over his eyes, 
which are half hidden with flesh, he wears spectacles, 
at least when reading. His whole appearance and 
bearing suggest solidity and power. He might sit for 
the portrait of the typical Englishman. A few years 
since, his face and style were made familiar to many 
American audiences. You will remember that he 
served two years in Canada for his deceased wife's 
sister, whom he could not, according to English law, 
marry at home. The term of his service was vastly 
more reasonable than that which Rachel's father 
exacted from Jacob. Two of his lectures in America 



Dr. Pimshon. 107 

— one upon " Daniel," the other upon " The 
Huguenots" — I heard in Brooklyn. They were too 
highly wrought — -the "tool-marks" were too apparent 

— to be received with enthusiasm in a country where 
Mr. Beecher's naturalness and spontaneity have so 
largely set the fashion for oratory. But he evidently 
improved his time among us, studying our history and 
visiting our national shrines: for I observed that he 
was advertised in the Dublin papers for a lecture, on 
the Wednesday evening following his sermon, upon 
" The Men of the Mayflower." I saw a report of this 
lecture, as previously deHvered, which proved, con- 
cerning Plymouth Rock, that he " had been there'' 

He commenced and continued his discourse in a 
natural, straightforward way, like a man having a direct, 
honest purpose. His voice was too high and loud at 
the beginning, and was unduly sustained in pitch 
and volume throughout. It sounds as if it had been 
strained. Blunt, familiar sentences were occasionally 
interjected, but the bulk of the discourse was highly 
elaborate and ornate. His imagination is tropical in 
its luxuriance, and as he takes you through his 
tangled forest-paths and bowers of beauty you some- 
times begin to doubt his earnestness, and to question 



io8 Eminent British Divines. 

whether it may not be his chief purpose to show you 
his rhetorical plantation rather than to lead you to 
any moral destination. But, suddenly, at the most 
unexpected point, you are brought out into the plain 
highway again, and he utters a few sentences, short 
and pointed, like the inscription on a guide-post, and 
you blame yourself for having distrusted your guide. 
There is a striking contrast between the man's ponder- 
ous frame and his fine and often exquisite rhetoric. 
The presence of the strong man always redeems his 
nicety from mere prettiness. 

He spoke without notes, yet it was evident that 
(with the exception of occasional sentences, intended 
to break the excessive smoothness of the flow of his 
polished periods) the sermon had been carefully 
written and committed to memory. His text was 
Mat. 5: 14, 15, i6: "Ye are the light of the world," 
etc. The following were his three grand heads : 

1. " Light is derived, and therefore humble. It is 
not ye but your Hght that is to shine." 

2. " Light is self-evidencing, and therefore cannot 
be hid. Does any one ever ask if you are a Christian ? 
Then you are no proper Christian at all. Did any 
one ask where Moses had been when he descended 



Dr. Punshon. 109 

from the Mount with the glory of God shining in his 
face?" 

3. " Light is a pleasant thing, and therefore needs 
no apology." 

Here he enumerated some of the substantial reasons 
for Christian joy. Shall I jot down for you a few 
of his sentences as specimens ? " Christians are to let 
their light shine, not as hermits but as men ; not in the 
convent, but in the company." " The primary duty 
of the Christian is to glorify God — to fill life with 
doxologies of song and hallelujahs of service." " When 
duty, with solitary finger, points one way, and self- 
interest and the applause of men point the other, the 
Christian obeys the index of God." " The Christian 
is to let his Hght shine before men ; he is not to glare 
it upon them as a policeman suddenly glares his 
lantern upon the affrighted criminal." " The path of 
the just shines dimmer and dimmer? No, that is 
the class-meeting version of it. No, brighter and 
brighter ! " " Naturalists tell us that the eye of the 
eagle droops and weeps when it looks at the sun. 
The world has an eagle eye for your faults; but let 
your light shine so purely that its critical eye shall 
droop before the brightness and beauty of your life." 



no Eminent Biitish Divines. 

Having heard Morley Punshon twice, and also read 
a volume of his published discourses, I am sure I 
should not expect from his preaching, with all its 
excellences, any of those mighty works which accom- 
panied and followed that of the illustrious founder of 
Methodism. 

In Glasgow we heard Dr. William Pulsford, a Con- 
gregationalist, who is accounted one of the two or 
three first preachers in the city. He is said to have 
the faculty of attracting and holding young men. He 
is a small man, rather frail than robust in appearance, 
with a high forehead and thin, study-worn face, and 
is about sixty years of age. His manner is exceedingly 
quiet and conversational. His thoughts are clean-cut 
and distinct. His sentences are concise and rich- 
freighted. He is not fluent; continuity is broken by 
too long pauses between passages. His language is 
classical in its purity, and yet impresses you not as the 
result of present effort or special preparation— not as 
the treading of the wine-press, but as the bursting 
juice from the ripe clusters of culture. Though deep, 
rich sweetness and purity chiefly characterized his 
discourse, yet it was not without passages of real 
power. I heard him spoken of as a popular preacher, 



Norman Macleod. in 

but, judging from the sermon I heard, I should never 
venture to call him one. 

There is no living Scotchman whom I so much 
desired to hear as Prof. John Caird, who now holds a 
chair in the University of Glasgow, and seldom 
preaches. His present manner is described as calm, 
and his sermons as thoughtful and scholarly, but in 
his earlier years he must have had an impassioned 
eloquence nothing less than marvelous. 

We had come to Glasgow a few years too late to 
hear that great and good man Norman Macleod, but 
it was pleasant to hear his praises spoken on every 
hand. I am told that his likeness adorns the walls, 
not only of rich mansions, but also of multitudes of 
cottages in Highland hamlets. When the poor saw 
him they blessed him, and the Queen delighted in 
him. 

We visited his church, " The Old Barony," the 
place where he had power with God and with men, 
and prevailed. It is situated in an unfashionable and 
even poor part of the city, near the Infirmary ; yet, as 
the old parish church, it still enjoys a certain prestige. 
On the outer wall of this sanctuary we saw a perma- 
nent announcement of services " for people in working 



112 Eminent British Divines. 

clothes." You saw at a glance that the interior of the 
church, with its amplitude of space and its semi- 
circular pews, was designed for popular audiences. 
The people who were gathering for evening worship 
were of the humbler sort, and the contribution 
receivers in the vestibule were loaded, not with sover- 
eigns or shillings, but pennies. 

We went to hear Dr. Donald Macleod, the biog- 
rapher of his famous brother, his successor as editor 
of Good Words, and one of Her Majesty's chaplains, but 
he was away upon his vacation. His church is in a 
fashionable quarter of the town, and is said to be 
attended by what are known in Great Britain as " the 
best people." We subsequently made his acquaintance 
on the steamboat from Oban to Inverness, and still 
later enjoyed a stroll with him and his brother-in-law, 
Rev. Dr. Clerk, the parish minister at Corpach. 
Through their courtesy we passed a delightful evening 
at the parsonage, a refined Highland home, where we 
heard the old Scotch ballads beautifully sung by the 
daughters of Dr. Clerk, assisted by their uncle. Dr. 
Macleod, who has a superb voice. 

Professor Hoppin, of Yale, calls York Minster " the 
grandest building in Great Britain, and among the 



Ca7io7i Wilberforce. 113 

finest in the world." It was in the choir of this min- 
ster that we heard Canon Wilberforce, a son of Bishop 
Wilberforce, and grandson of the great emancipator. 
He is a tall, slim man, with a fine, unwhiskered face, 
and is about forty years old. At the beginning of his 
sermon you are annoyed by his high, unnatural voice 
and declamatory tone. He uses no gesticulation, 
but betrays the intensity of his temperament by his 
constant stepping from side to side of the little pulpit, 
or " theological tub." But you are soon made to 
forget his infelicities by the simplicity of his rhetoric 
and his profound earnestness. Though he reads 
closely, yet he makes the impression that he is doing 
nothing for display, but is simply seeking to press 
home his thoughts upon the minds and hearts of his 
hearers. He had come up from Southampton, where 
he resides, to attend the meetings of a temperance 
society to be held in York during the week; and, as 
was natural, he preached upon Temperance. 

He is erecting a memorial church in honor of his 
father, the Bishop, one portion of which is to be 
built with the contributions of temperance people 
alone. The collection of the morning was devoted 
to that purpose. 
8 



114 ^ Sjuall Audience. 

His discourse was one of the boldest and grandest 
I have ever heard upon the subject. I have heard 
men preach, both at home and abroad, whose world 
of thought seemed infinitely removed from the real 
world of men and women, with its wants and woes, 
its struggles and defeats ; and it did my heart good to 
hear a man, especially one of aristocratic prestige 
and in an aristocratic place, speak as if he really 
knew something of the sins and sorrows of the 
teeming masses outside of church walls, who are, 
alas ! too often outside, also, of the bounds of our 
sympathy and effort. The services which we had 
attended in English cathedrals had not prepared 
us to expect, in such a quarter, a sermon like that 
of Canon Wilberforce. 

At one cathedral choral service we counted three 
ecclesiastics, seven men and twelve boy singers, one 
organist and one organ-blower, and one verger — 
total, twenty -Jive persons^ — all to edify an audience 
of seven, including ourselves and other tourists who 
had happened in, and one little boy. The intoning 
was above criticism, and the service was artistically 
rendered, but I could not help saying (and may the 
dear Lord forgive me if I was uncharitable) that if 



Caiion Wilbcrforce. 115 

the world is to be converted by such means, the 
accomphshment of the work must be indefinitely 
postponed. No part of that choral service seemed 
more in keeping with the hour than the petition 
" that we may spend our time in rest and quietness ; " 
which petition seemed to be richly answered in the 
case of the celebrants. 

Canon Wilberforce, taking total-abstinence ground 
in the presence of a beer and wine bibbing congre- 
gation, illustrated the law of heredity, exhibiting 
the courage which dwelt in his grandfather, the 
statesman, and his father, the Bishop, and, I am per- 
suaded, in himself also. Repeatedly the ancestral fire 
flamed out. He quoted statistics showing the relation 
of the great recent increase of crime and pauperism 
to intemperance. The present depression of business, 
and consequent dissatisfaction of the working classes, 
he thought largely due to the withdrawal of such vast 
amounts of money and so much enterprise from 
legitimate channels, to supply the self-indulgent drink- 
ing habits of the people. 

In a most impressive and pathetic passage, he 
illustrated the damage inflicted by drink upon domes- 
tic life. He spoke from his own observation, and 



ii6 Afi Impressive Temperance Sermon. 

told of " one of the gentlest and most devoted wives 
he ever knew, over whose grave the earth is scarcely 
set, who, having borne with a drunken, brutal hus- 
band for long years, received from him a kick 
which liberated her anguish-stricken spirit, and suf- 
fered it to fly where the wicked cease from troubling 
and the weary are at rest; while her babe, prema- 
turely born, lay dead by the dead mother's side." 
While reciting at her funeral the blessed words of 
the burial service, he had vowed never to cease lifting 
up his voice against the vice by which that woman 
had been murdered. 

The wonderful ring of the sermon may be guessed 
from two or three sentences which are printed on my 
memory. Speaking of the impossibility of restraining 
men's lusts by law, he said : " This is not the plat- 
form ; and yet, before this altar, I declare that there 
is nothing at which the devils laugh more than at an 
act of Parhament." Again : " The Church of Eng- 
land of to-day, with its polished and gilded formalism, 
is pining for want of zeal. Christ can bear with our 
opposition better than our indifference. ' I would ye 
were even either cold or hot.' " These words sounded 
heroic in the choir of York Minster. Everything 



The Temperance Cause. 117 

considered, nothing which I have heard on this side 
the water has moved me Uke this sermon by Canon 
Wilberforce. 

I can close this letter with no more cheering news 
than that the temperance cause is advancing wonder- 
fully in Great Britain. Four of the Bishops of the 
Church of England and three of the Canons of West- 
minster, including Canon Farrar, are now total 
abstainers, and are outspoken in defense of their 
principles. The Duke of Westminster, who is 
accounted the richest man in the country, is also 
using his vast influence in favor of temperance, though 
I do not understand that he has yet taken the total 
abstinence ground. So much for progress among the 
powers that be. Meanwhile, Mr. William Noble, who 
commenced public speaking as a reformed drunkard 
by repeating from memory parts of Mr. Cough's 
lectures, has been over to the United States and 
learned the methods of the " Murphy movement," 
and introduced them in one of the worst quarters of 
London. The reformed men are called the " Blue 
Ribbon Army," and the Murphy pledge is most 
solemnly administered. The meetings are held in the 
" Hoxton Music Hall," a place where low concerts 



ii8 The Temperance Cause. 

were formerly given, and which was closed by the 
poHce as a disreputable place. I attended one of 
these meetings, and I confess that I never before saw 
so motley a crowd. They poured in fresh from the 
slums. The evening was the one hundred and tenth 
night that the meetings had been held, and four 
thousand five hundred signers to the pledge had been 
secured. 




m 



IX. 



Dr. Joseph Parker. . . Dr. John Gumming. . . .Canon Far- 
RAR Dean Stanley Charles H. Spurgeon. 



London. 

DR. JOSEPH PARKER, of London, is known 
to Americans through his published works, 
especially his " Ecce Deus." Many of our coun- 
trymen made his personal acquaintance at the meet- 
ing of the Evangelical Alliance in New York, in 
1873, where he delivered an admirable address upon 
" Modern Preaching and its Requirements." His 
appointment to this service, on so important an 
occasion, indicates the rank he has attained in his 
art. Occasional copies of his weekly paper, TAe 
Fountain^ which publishes his sermons, find their 
way across the sea. 

119 



I20 Eminefit British Divines. 

We heard one of his Thursday-noon discourses 
to business men. His church edifice is conveniently 
situated for such mid-week services, being near a 
business center. The sermons which he gives on 
these occasions have all been previously delivered 
to his Sabbath congregations. 

Dr. Parker is a large-framed, bulky man, with 
black hair and eyes, and a broad, full, red face. 
His bearing and speech betoken great self-reliance, 
an imperious will, force and energy, and no small self- 
complacency. His first utterances in our hearing 
were those of prayer, and suggested self-conscious- 
ness and an affected loftiness. His sermon was 
delivered entirely without notes, and was character- 
ized by strength, fluency, beauty and unction. He 
proved himself a master of sarcasm and irony, and 
of pathos as well. He won and held the warm 
sympathy of his hearers. They smiled, they wept, 
were instructed and convinced. Before the benedic- 
tion, the preacher announced that The Foimiain 
for the week contained the sermon to which we 
had just listened, and would be for sale in the ves- 
tibule. So, many of us had the sermon both given 
to us and sold to us, and thus preserved two copies, 



Dr. JoJni Ctimnwig. 121 

one on " the fleshly tables of the heart," the other 
on " the printed page." 

Though Dr. Parker is a man of recognized power, 
yet conservative Londoners speak of him as sensa- 
tional. And, certainly, not all his measures for 
attracting the public ear and eye would seem deli- 
cate, even to our less fastidious American taste. 
This fear haunted me in hearing him, that he had 
more ability than amiability. 

One Sunday afternoon we attended Crown Court 
Chapel, near Covent Garden, London, and were 
surprised to find a congregation of only some fifty 
persons, w^here admiring throngs were wont to 
gather. The pastor, Dr. John Cumming, a minister 
of the Scottish Church, and a Scotchman by birth, 
is a tall, well-proportioned, refined and venerable 
old gentleman, about seventy years of age. He 
has, as you know, been a voluminous theological 
writer, a distinguished adversary of the Romish 
Church, and a steadfast opponent of the party 
which, under Chalmers, founded the Free Church 
of Scotland. 

His sermon (if a disjointed talk upon a variety 
of subjects, having no relevancy to the text, deserves 



122 Eminent British Divines. 

so considerable a name) was an abundant explana- 
tion of the empty pews. He read, apparently from 
a little commonplace book, thoughts which had 
not the remotest mutual kinship ; lifting his eyes 
between the passages and proceeding to thin them 
down by extemporaneous remarks. In his prime 
he is said to have had " a peerless capacity for 
continuousness," which he still retains. But the old- 
time dehght of his hearers has given place to a 
patient, respectful weariness. The spectacle w^as 
altogether pitiable. But our hearts were melted in 
tender sympathy for him when we subsequently 
learned that the career of a reckless son had broken 
down the noble old man more than the weight of 
years. 

His style of speaking has always been fluent and 
conversational. Though never among the strongest 
and grandest of preachers, yet his was formerly a 
genuine and captivating eloquence, and for grace 
and polish of manner he was unsurpassed. 

Canon Farrar is apparently about forty-five years 
old. He is of medium height and neither fleshy 
nor thin, but plump and well rounded. His brain 
is probably never dull nor dizzy from plethora, 



Can oil Farrai'. 123 

neither is he haunted by dyspeptic horrors. He 
seems Hke a man in thoroughly sound health. He 
has a large, symmetrical head, round in its general 
form and partially bald, with a high, broad forehead. 
His hair is dark brown and his eyes are small. He 
is erect in form, having nothing of the " scholarly 
stoop " which we naturally associate with the writer 
of many books. You would call him a fine-looking 
man. He has not attained entire self-possession or 
self-forgetfulness in public address, but his face is 
red with blushes. 

We heard him in St. Margaret's Chapel, which 
stands within the inclosure of Westminster Abbey. 
He is much discussed just now on account of his 
recent deliverances upon the doctrine of future pun- 
ishment, and his photograph is conspicuous in the 
book-shop windows. We therefore anticipated find- 
ing a crowded house, but there were seats for many 
who had staid away. 

His sermon was about what his published dis- 
courses had prepared me to look for. It was 
exceptionally clear and pure in language, but suf- 
ficiently commonplace in thought. It was a con- 
trast between Samuel and the sons of EU. He 



124 Eminent British Divines. 

spoke some words of denunciation concerning the 
dissipation of young men belonging to the gentry 
and nobiHty, which, from the sensation they caused, 
were evidently regarded as bold; and in all his 
utterances there breathed a high, free and manly 
spirit; but in no sentence did he exhibit great 
power or impressiveness. Farrar reads closely, and 
his tones in delivery are execrable — the inevitable 
sing-song of the English Church. 

In one part of his sermon he betrayed annoy- 
ance and hesitancy, which culminated in a pause, 
followed by the remark : " We do not wish people 
to come here who are not willing to remain through 
the services." By which it appears that some had 
come to hear the superb music, and, not being spell- 
bound by the preacher, were retiring. Thus it seems 
that even a Canon may not be a sufficiently big 
gun to carry all before him. 

It is not strange that the EngHsh Church, though 
she develops the ablest and most scholarly men, is 
not rich in great preachers. The ritual and not the 
sermon is emphasized. If comparatively little is 
expected from the sermon, it is natural that com- 
paratively little should be done for it. Moreover, 




DEAN STANLEY. 



Dean Stanley, 125 

the splendid prizes, in place and titles, with which 
the Church rewards superior authorship, successfully 
invite time and strength from pulpit preparation. 
The widow and biographer of Charles Kingsley says 
that "his sermons were always remarkable." But he 
who turns from "Hypatia" or "Alton Locke" to read 
Kingsley's discourses, cannot fail to conclude that 
the press rather than the pulpit claimed and got the 
hon's share of the thought and labor of that 
knightly soul. Those who have been instructed 
and charmed by the scholarly and delightful books 
of Farrar are doomed to some degree of disap- 
pointment when they hear him preach. 

Of Dean Stanley it may be said, more truly, per- 
haps, than of any other minister of the Church of 
England, that he is the bright, consummate flower 
of the highest Enghsh breeding and culture. The 
son of the Bishop of Norwich, he was a pupil of 
Arnold, of Rugby, and subsequently his biographer. 
A graduate of Oxford, he became Regius Professor 
of Ecclesiastical History in that University. Chap- 
lain to Prince Albert, he became the intimate and 
beloved friend of Her Majesty the Queen, who gave 
him one of the noblest and best of the ladies of 



126 Eminent Biitish Divines. 

her court in marriage. He was selected to accom- 
pany the Prince of Wales in his journey through 
the East, which tour furnished Stanley the raw 
materials for his rich and vivid volume upon Sinai 
and Palestine. And now he wears his crowning 
honors as Dean of Westminster; and, despite his 
splendid career, wonderful to relate, he holdeth fast 
his integrity! He is said to be simple and child- 
like in manner and spirit. 

We heard him preach, in his own cathedral, 
probably his last sermon before his visit to America. 
Every seat and standing - place within reach of his 
voice was occupied, and he was listened to with 
profound and sympathetic attention. 

He is a short, slim man, with head and shoulders 
slightly bent. He is now sixty-three years old, but he 
seems much older, his voice and whole appearance 
suggesting feebleness. He is, however, evidently in 
poor health. His face has great delicacy of mould, 
and a serious, refined and gentle expression. His eye 
is light, probably blue, and his hair and English side 
beard are thoroughly bleached. His fine head and 
fair forehead betoken the predominance of intellect. 
You see at a glance that he is a fine-fibered man. 



Dean Stanley. 127 

He reads his sermon closely, without changing his 
position or making a gesture. Nothing favorable 
to his elocution can be said, except that there 
is evident warmth and sympathy in his voice, and 
a rhythm in his tones in curious keeping with the 
rhythm of his sentences, and really interpreting their 
thought. In themselves considered, his inflections 
are absurd; but, sustaining the flow of his noble 
rhetoric, and conveying to the ear his generous 
meaning, we welcome them for what they bring. 
He who presents us with pearls in a rich casket 
may be shabbily dressed; but, in the light of his 
gift, we are ready to make oath that he is "clothed 
in purple and fine linen." 

Stanley's sermon was upon Elijah at Horeb ; and, 
after hearing it, I turned to his " Jewish Church," 
and found several passages which he had, " for sub- 
stance of doctrine," reproduced, and others which 
he had almost literally reproduced. Though birth 
and privilege and royal favor have raised him to a 
position far above the masses of men, yet he 
evidently lives in the same world with them, and 
sympathizes with their aspirations, their struggles 
and discouragements. The discourse was full of 



128 E??iineiit British Divines. 

hope and charity — the helping hand of a vaHant 
brother. 

How beautiful a thing is genuine culture! Such 
culture is, I think, always recognized by two tokens, 
— self-restraint and orderliness. The uncultivated but 
hospitable housewife places before her guests viands 
excessive in variety and quality, with defective 
taste in arrangement and manner of serving. But 
the refined housewife shows her breeding in the 
restraining hand, and in the order and dehcacy of 
her table. An uncultivated speaker is in danger of 
overcrowding his address, and presenting his thoughts 
in a crude, mixed way. But a ripe scholar, like 
Stanley, does not attempt to give too much, but pre- 
sents the thoughts he offers clearly, strongly, elegantly. 

Moreover, this must be said of Dean Stanley, that 
however much you may differ from him in doc- 
trinal or ecclesiastical views, you must admire and 
love this man, who has evidently got past Esek, the 
well of strife and controversy, and beyond Sitnah, 
the well of recrimination, even to Rehoboth, the 
place of largeness and breadth. 

I have heard Mr. Spurgeon three times — twice in 
V 1858, and now again in 1878. I first heard him 




REV. C. H. SPURGECN. 



Sptirgeon. 129 

at Epsom Race-course, where the celebrated Derby- 
races are run. The race season had passed, and he 
spoke for the benefit of a church there (an admis- 
sion-fee being charged), in the grand stand of the 
course. His text was i. Cor. ix. 24 : " Know ye 
not, that they which run in a race, run all, but one 
receiveth the prize ? So run, that ye may obtain." 
I took no notes of the sermon, but the points he 
made can never fade from my memory. These 
were his heads : I. " No horse runs in the race that 
is not entered r From which he inferred the neces- 
sity of having one's name enrolled in the Lamb's 
Book of Life, and an actual entrance upon the 
Christian course, in order to a successful ending of 
the race. IL ^^ No horse wins in the race that is 
heavily laden^^ and here he urged the necessity of 
laying aside every weight, etc. III. " No horse 
wins in the race that leaps the posts and rails, and 
gets out of the course entirely'' From which he pre- 
dicted the failure of such Christian professors as go 
over to profane isms and practices. IV. ^^ No horse 
wins in the race that stops to kick his competitors T 

At this time Spurgeon was but twenty-four years 
« 
old, and had been preaching in London four years. 

9 



130 Emi7ient British Divines, 

The following Sunday I heard him in Surrey Music 
Hall, and though an admission fee of a shilling 
was charged, to feed the fund for building the 
Metropolitan Chapel, the house seemed full of pay- 
ing auditors before the doors were opened to the 
non-paying crowd. But then the people poured in 
like the sea when the dikes are leveled. 

Even at this early period of his ministry he spoke 
with the same assurance and self-possession which 
now characterize him. The consciousness of his 
embassadorship led him, even in extreme youth, to 
speak "as one having authority, and not as the 
scribes." A friend of mine, who heard him when he 
was but eighteen years old, at which age he became 
pastor of a church at Waterbeach, testifies that when, 
at the close of his discourse, he appealed to the aged, 
they were deeply moved, the whole air of the preacher 
indicating his right to counsel and warn his grey- 
haired seniors. He brought the expectation of doing 
a great work in the ministry up with him from child- 
hood. His father and grandfather were both inde- 
pendent ministers, and on one occasion, when Richard 
Knill was visiting the latter in Essex, the good 

s 

missionary took Charles, then a little, white-haired 



Spurgeon. 131 

lad, into the garden, and talked with him awhile 
under a yew-tree. After praying with him, he took 
the boy upon his knee and said : " This child will 
preach the gospel, and he will preach it to the 
largest congregations of our times." In one of his 
pubhshed sermons Mr. Spurgeon thus refers to this 
utterance of Mr. Knill : " I believed," says Spurgeon, 
"his prophecy, and my standing here to-day is 
partly occasioned by such beUef. It did not hinder 
me in my diHgence in seeking to educate myself 
because I believed I was destined to preach to 
large congregations; not at all; but the prophecy 
helped forward its own fulfillment; and I prayed 
and sought and strove, always having this star of 
Bethlehem before me, that the day should come 
when I should preach the gospel." 

On his first appearance in London, and for several 
years afterward, many regarded him as a mushroom 
growth, and he was harshly criticised and even 
ridiculed. But his influence as a preacher and 
pastor and organizer have yearly increased, even to 
this day. His average congregation numbers from 
five to six thousand, and he has, on occasions, 
preached to an assembly of twenty-five thousand 



132 Ejnijient British Divines. 

people. His sermons are translated into all the 
principal European languages. His training college 
furnishes scores of preachers every Sabbath, from 
among its students, for the destitute sections of the 
metropolis, and its graduates are eagerly sought by 
Baptist churches throughout England. His earnest, 
evangelical, catholic spirit has elevated the tone of 
the churches of his order throughout the United 
Kingdom. 

li I were asked to summarize Mr. Spurgeon's 
elements of power, I could not fail to mention: i. 
A voice of wonderful clearness, sweetness and com- 
pass. 2. Marvelous fluency. 3. Perfect self-posses- 
sion. 4. Great variety of thought and illustration. 
5. The habit of distributing his thought under 
pointed and concise heads. 6. Robust common- 
sense, bringing him into sympathy with the common 
people, who always hear him gladly. 7. Profound 
sincerity and earnestness. 

Of this last-mentioned characteristic, Henry Vin- 
cent, the English orator, gave me an illustration. 
Mr. Vincent, having been impressed by a simple 
presentation of the truth by Mr. Spurgeon, repaired 
to the ante-room after service, to thank him for the 



Spurgeon. 133 

sermon. The door was ajar, and the preacher was 
leaning his head upon his hand in the attitude of 
prayer. Lifting his eyes, he warmly welcomed his 
visitor. " I did not intend to intrude," said Mr. 
Vincent, "but simply wanted to express my enjoy- 
ment of your sermon." " But they will so soon 
forget it ! They will so soon forget it ! " exclaimed 
Mr. Spurgeon, while the tears were rolling down his 
cheeks. 

In personal conversation, this pastor of the Metro- 
politan Tabernacle exhibits, in the most delightful 
way, the simplicity, frankness, warmth and kindness 
of his nature. 

Suffering now from the gout, he has to spend, 
every year, some months (and those the most propi- 
tious for Christian work) away from the moist 
climate of England, usually in Italy. This annual 
season of exile he regards as one of the severest 
trials of his life. 

When we remember the immense size of his 
weekly congregations and the variety and efficiency 
of the benevolent agencies of his church, and esti- 
mate the far-reaching influence of his published 
discourses, and the personal power of his hundreds 



/ 



134 Eminent British Divines. 

of living epistles in the pulpits of the land; and 
when we bring to mind the prominence of4iis posi- 
tion in the midst of the largest and wealthiest 
capital of Europe; and when, moreover, we recollect 
that the man who has been the inspirer and main- 
spring of all this wonderful and far-reaching system 
of benefactions, not for a year but for a quarter of 
a century, is but forty-four years old, we need not 
hesitate to declare that the career of Charles H. 
Spurgeon is unparalleled in the history of the Chris- 
tian church. 




.^^^^.^.^.^^.^^ 



X. 



From London to Paris .... First Impressions of the 
French Metropolis. .. .The Second Great Exposi- 
tion The Tuileries, the Trocadero, and Sur- 
roundings .... America's Educational Exhibit .... 
Columbus in the Great Exposition. 

Paris. 

OUR trip from London to Calais was a pleasant 
one, twenty-four miles by rail to Dover, 
through a thriving country of towns, interspersed 
with green fields and grain and hops. We took the 
new double steamer " Calais- Do veres " across the 
usually boisterous British Channel, which was as 
smooth and calm as one could wish. This new- 
steamer looks like two lashed together, and will run 
just as well backward as forward. Indeed, it has 
no stern; it has two prows at each end, and the 
paddle-wheels are in the center. The construction 



136 Across the Channel . 

is to prevent its rolling on this stormy sea. This 
was the first time it had been used for a passenger 
steamer, though once it had brought over Lord 
Beaconsfield from the Berlin Congress. He was 
received with great enthusiasm in London while we 
were there. He seems to be exceedingly popular 
with the English people, and almost every English- 
man that we conversed with lauds him to the skies 
and depreciates Gladstone. As we arrive and pass 
through France, we notice that there are no hedges 
or fences to divide one farm from another, and that 
the stock feeding upon the fields is guarded by 
women or children to keep them in the lots appro- 
priated to them. 

On reaching Calais we hear nothing but the 
French language, which is sufficiently musical when 
used by educated persons, especially by ladies, as 
they meet in social intercourse. They are so polite, 
and utter so many words of commendation, and do 
everything with so much grace, that one is inclined 
to be a little rude and stare at them with delight; 
but the jabber of the crowds seems like that of an 
excited mob, so many words are employed to 
express a Httle, and the people are so demonstrative. 



First Impressions of Paris. 137 

The railroad cars — or coaches as they are called 
(iwitiires de chemin de fer) — look like Hawkes' stage- 
coaches. They are made in compartments, like the 
English coaches, holding in each compartment eight 
or ten persons, one-half riding backward. We are 
locked in, and off we go. 

Paris is about ten hours' ride from London, all by 
rail except the one hour and a half by steamer 
across the Channel. Everybody says that " Paris is 
the most beautiful city in the world." As we get 
up in the morning and take our first walk up the 
Boulevard d' Opera and Rue de RivoH, to the new 
Opera House, and notice the long blocks of hand- 
some, cream-colored stone buildings, with mansard 
roofs, and the clean asphalt pavements, the artistic 
windows filled with beautiful goods of every descrip- 
tion, and walk up and down the splendid boule- 
vards (of which there are over seventeen hundred), 
with their fine shade-trees, one can enjoy them with 
a zest in comparison with the dingy, old-looking 
buildings in London. Paris used to be a fortified 
city. The walls and towers w^ere pulled down, and 
a road made over them and planted with trees, 
to which the name boulevard (bulwark) was given. 



138 Public Parks. 

The city was founded so far back in the past that 
when anything is spoken of as being "old,"^ it must 
refer to something that existed or occurred before 
the time of Christ. Paris is proud of her palaces, 
monuments, fountains, parks and boulevards. While 
many of her monarchs have expended immense 
sums in improving and adorning the city, Napoleon 
III. did what neither Paris nor any other capital 
of Europe ever witnessed before in the way of 
improvements. He has remodeled and restored 
every building that was defective. Superb thorough- 
fares were opened. He constructed new bridges 
and made them free to the public, and to him more 
than to any one else is due the credit of making 
Paris the most attractive city in the world. It 
contains thirty-five monumental and eighty-eight 
unadorned fountains, besides over two thousand 
water-plugs, which are turned on daily to purify the 
streets. The drinking-fountains, which are seen 
everywhere, were erected through the liberality of 
Sir Richard Wallace. The population of Paris is 
two millions, and one-quarter of the births are 
illegitimate. As we go through the city, here and 
there may be seen marks of the destruction of many 



Second Great Exposition. 139 

of her most beautiful and attractive public buildings 
during the Franco-Prussian war and the reign of 
the Commune. Many of these, however, have been 
rebuilt, and Paris now makes a splendid appearance, 
and indicates a wonderfully recuperative power in 
being able to dupUcate the glories of 1867 in her 
second great Exposirion on the Champ de Mars. 
The present Exposirion was decided upon by a 
decree of the President of the Republic (MacMahon) 
in 1876, and the Commissioners determined that it 
should be held within the limits of the city of 
Paris, and the Champ de Mars was selected. It is 
about a mile and a half from the Grand Opera 
House, which is considered to be about the center 
of the city, and is easily reached by steamer, rail- 
road or omnibus. Starting for the Exposition, we 
took the little steamer on the Seine, in front of the 
Tuileries; fare only twenty centimes, or four cents. 

No edifice in Paris is so rich in historical asso- 
ciations as the Tuileries, and none, with the exception 
of the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), has ever been 
overtaken by so terrible a fate. The Communists, in 
187 1, aware of their desperate posirion and impend- 
ing destruction, determined, at one of their secret 



140 The Trocadero. 

meetings, to wreak their revenge on the ill-fated city 
by setting all the principal buildings on fire. The 
whole of the western side of the palace, facing the Jar- 
din des Tuileries, and the paviHon on the north side, 
next to the Rue de Rivoh, were reduced to a gigan- 
tic heap of smouldering ruins, after burning three 
days and nights. The restoration is rapidly ap- 
proaching completion, and the imposing mass of 
buildings forming the old and new Louvre will soon 
be as grand and beautiful as ever. We pass the 
Hotel de Ville, which remains as a monument of 
the terrible destruction that overtook it in those sad 
days of the Commune, the loss to Paris being irre- 
parable, the library and so many pubUc documents 
having been destroyed. 

We see upon the right, a httle further on, a 
splendid palace, in a style of architecture wonder- 
fully characteristic of French genius, which is called 
the Trocadero. It is said to be the finest specimen 
of architecture in the world, and is now used as a 
museum for the Exposition, and is to remain per- 
manently, to be used by the city of Paris for pub- 
lic festivities, etc. It is on a high elevation, and 
as one crosses the bridge and passes through the 




THE TROCADERO. 



The Aqiia7ium. 141 

beautiful park, a most attractive panorama is pre- 
sented to the eye, replete with marvels imitative of 
ancient art and modern suggestion. Around are 
miniature lakes and cascades, fountains and flower- 
beds. The grounds facing the Champ de Mars 
were once the garden of a convent; the building, 
on its elevated plateau, is now an annex of the 
Exposition, the central portion forming an immense 
amphitheater, seating eight thousand people. 

Before the grand pavilion is the monumental 
cascade, the water of which, after passing over an 
arched grotto, descends, by a series of marble steps, 
to an immense basin, ornamented with fountains 
and with animals representing the four quarters of 
the globe. When these fountains are playing in the 
afternoon, and scattering the spray, arched with 
rainbows, in every direction, nothing can be more 
charming. We visit the immense underground 
aquarium, covered with rock work, and descend by 
rustic stone steps, as if entering a cave; and then, 
winding around, we come across great plates of 
glass in the sides of the cave, behind which can 
be seen many species of fish, swimming about in 
their element, so arranged that they cannot see us 



142 Ma'm Building. 

while we gaze upon them. The length of this 
aquarium must be from two to three hundred feet, 
and it was amusing to see the excitable French 
people gesticulating and chattering as they passed 
from one section to another. 

The galleries of the Trocadero, extending right 
and left, contain a retrospective exhibition of the 
products of every period of history, from the remotest 
times; giving a record of the progress of art and 
industry in their development, from the flint period 
down to the present day. 

The main building, on the opposite side of the 
Seine, covers about seventy acres, and is of iron 
and glass, with an immense dome in the center and 
at each of the four corners. It is not a success in 
an architectural point of view; but for the purposes 
for which it was designed nothing could be better 
adapted. The ground upon which the Exhibition 
is held covers upward of one hundred and fifty 
acres, and everything is most admirably combined 
and arranged. Passing through the grand halls, we are 
amazed at the rich display of everything useful and 
ornamental — the choicest and best that every nation 
on the globe can produce (except the United States). 



Crown Diamonds. 143 

The first object that meets the eye is the unique 
India palace or temple, in which are the presents 
received by the Prince of Wales while in India, 
embracing every variety of precious stones and rich 
productions which that country can offer. To pos- 
sess these would be a fortune alone. Then we 
come upon the Gobelin tapestry and " Sevres " por- 
celain vases, etc. These are from the national 
manufactories, which are conducted by the French 
government, and none of the goods are sold. No 
expense and pains have been spared by the govern- 
ment to make this display superior to any other in 
the world, and one needs weeks to enjoy and 
properly appreciate it. The French National Re- 
galia, valued a,t from fifteen to twenty milHons of 
dollars, comes next, all diamonds and precious 
stones, and they seem almost as large and plentiful 
as pebbles upon the sea -shore. Eugenie's diamond 
necklace is three feet long, with large diamonds glit- 
tering and sparkling like so many stars. The Regent 
(a solitaire) is shown, which I should think would 
measure one and a half by one and three-quarter 
inches. There are necklaces of diamonds, emeralds, 
sapphires, rubies and opals combined, tempting a 



144 Types of Architecture. 

lover of the beautiful to break the command against 
covetousness ; also Napoleon's sword, with the hilt 
of solid diamonds, all making a display of precious 
stones not equaled in the world. 

The buildings containing the exhibits of the dif- 
ferent nations front upon the Rue des Nations, 
down which we now pass. As specimens character- 
istic of the respective styles of architecture of the 
different countries of the world, they are, in chaste- 
ness and elegance of design, a study and a wonder. 
Japan shows a small Buddhist temple; the Chinese 
adopt a style of building characteristic of the Celes- 
tial empire ; Spain, of Moorish architecture ; Persia, 
Tunis and Morocco present a beautiful minaret. 
Says a French writer, " The fagade of the United 
States building is one of those wooden structures 
which the settlers of the interior erect." I hope not, 
if Ohio is in the interior. It is a showy, gilded- 
looking building, covered all over with shields. On 
these shields are emblazoned the coats of arms of the 
thirteen original States, and also that of the District 
of Columbia. The building would attract attention, 
certainly, but by no means represents our style of 
architecture. We should call it altogether too 



The America7i Section. 145 

" Frenchy." We could not, however, pass without 
taking off our hats to the old flag, with its stars 
and stripes floating in the breeze. 

Here is a grand opportunity to study the pro- 
ductions in art, science and industry of England, 
France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Russia, China, 
Turkey, and, indeed, of every nation on the globe. 
Though ignorant of their different tongues, we can 
enjoy and appreciate the wonderful results of the 
unceasing progress of the world, as represented 
here. 

Naturally, we first find ourselves in the exhibit of 
the United States. Here everything looks bright 
and active, and indicates at least our " go-aheadi- 
tiveness." There are but eleven or twelve hundred 
exhibits from the United States, although, considering 
our capacity and genius, we ought to have had a 
representation worthy of the Great Republic; but 
the dflatoriness and stinginess of Congress in the 
matter have deprived us in a measure of a grand 
opportunity. The educational exhibit is one of the 
most important features of the American section. 
Two very appropriate mottoes have been chosen for 
the outer wall of the paviUon — Montesquieu's 



146 Educational Exhibit. 

famous maxim, ^'■Cest dans le gouver?inient republi- 
caiii que Pan a besoiii de toute la paissa7ice de P edu- 
cation^^' and the sage saying of Washington, " Pro- 
mote, as an object of primary importance, institu- 
tions for the general diffusion of knowledge"; and as 
you enter the room you notice prominently this 
motto, " Public instruction is free in every State in 
the Union," Every American feels proud of this, 
and the common people of all other nations applaud 
it. We may well pride ourselves upon our educa- 
tional exhibit, which, notwithstanding the great 
drawback of lack of space, has attracted general 
notice and admiration. It is said to be fuller 
and more perfect than that of any other nation, 
except, of course, France herself, who has a wide 
stretch of halls at her disposal to spread out an 
exhibit scarcely more important than ours, which 
could well cover ten times the ground it occupies 
at present. A supplementary educational exhibition 
is to be held in the Palais Royale, where the United 
States has been invited to make an exhibit; and 
France or Paris (I did not understand which) has 
appropriated one hundred thousand francs to bear 
the expenses of teachers who have been selected, for 



Educational Exhibit. 147 

their reputation in their respective departments, to 
come to the exhibition from all parts of France; 
each one is to make a report of their observations, 
and their head- quarters to be in the hall of the 
Palais Royale occupied by the United States. This 
will give us an opportunity to show our resources 
in this department, the superintendent of which is 
assured that we shall take many awards, notwith- 
standing our poor opportunity for display. Our 
exhibit of national education is a great and grati- 
fying success. The French have adopted a number 
of our educational methods, and recognize our 
superiority in ah practical branches, though, of 
course, in everything that appertains to art they are 
masters of the world. 

What the United States does exhibit shows that 
we have sacrificed the beautiful to the useful to a 
certain extent, and in this respect the character of 
our department is different from that of other 
nations, whose strong point is art rather than 
science and industry. In agricultural machinery I 
have no doubt we shall take the principal awards. 
I notice around the exhibit of Fay & Co., of Cin- 
cinnati, of " wood- working machinery," an interested 



> 



148 Machinery^ Etc. 

crowd, while the machinery is highly commended. 
In passing through the department of agricultural 
tools I noticed a fine display, attractively arranged. 
On looking up to see where they were firom, I read 
as follows, from a gilt-lettered sign : " Brown, Hin- 
man & Co., Dayton, Ohio." I always supposed 
that this enterprising firm was located in Columbus. 
The Ohio Tool Company, of Columbus, make a 
creditable display of carpenters' hand tools. The 
Revolving Scraper Company show their scraper in 
a prominent place, and the Lechner Mining Machine 
Company exhibit one of their coal-mining machines, 
which is attracting a good deal of attention. These 
were all the exhibits I saw from Columbus. 



«^^F|^^^- 



XL 



Fine Art Department of the Exposition .... Notable 
Works by American Artists. . . .Art as an Educator 

....Paris and Philadelphia. .. .Hotel Life The 

French Sabbath. 

Paris. 

THE Fine Art Galleries of the Exposition are 
beautifully arranged, and are as if you entered a 
large and splendid palace with numerous halls and 
parlors. As you pass from one to the other you 
observe that the walls are tastefully hung with paint- 
ings, the floors carpeted and the doorways handsomely 
draped with curtains, while over each is the name 
of the country it represents. It is an enchanting 
scene. Here are the choicest and rarest productions 
of living modern artists. France has the greatest 
number of paintings, two thousand and seventy-one in 
all, while the United States has only one hundred and 
149 



150 Art at the Exposition. 

twenty-six. France will of course take the first awards. 
She has a number of distinguished artists, and Meis- 
sonier, the most famous of all, has twenty pictures 
on exhibition. He sold one of his paintings to 
the late A. T. Stewart, of New York, for seventy 
thousand dollars, and probably has as high a reputa- 
tion as any living artist. Most of his pictures are 
small ones, and the one, "The Philosopher," which 
is said to have the first award, reveals his power 
of rendering in detail every part of a painting to 
perfection. " The Review " is his largest painting, 
and is a brilliant scene of thousands of soldiers in 
their gay uniforms, bringing out in a life-like manner 
the spectacle of a grand military parade. His 
portrait of Alexandre Dumas is said to be admirable. 
From lack of proper education in art, no doubt, I 
could not understand why so great a value is put 
upon his works, and in my ignorance I should have 
selected two or three in the American Department 
as my choice. One, " Les Funerailles de une 
Momie," by Bridgman, was bought by James 
Gordon Bennett, of New York, for three thousand 
dollars, and to my mind is the choice of the United 
States paintings, among which I particularly noticed 



The French Gallery. 151 

a tropical scene, by Church ; " Playing a Violin by 
Candle-light," by Guy, and " The Passing Show," by 
J. G. Brown, portraying four street boys viewing the 
passing of one of Barnum's shows, in all their glee, 
pointing, gesticulating, etc., which is wonderfully 
life-like. Americans are fond of depreciating our 
display in art, but, considering the small number of 
paintings, there are as few poor ones among them 
as in the exhibit of any other nation. The French, 
of course, would undervalue them, as there are no 
nude pieces, of which there are numerous examples 
in the French Gallery which would shock the 
modesty of prudes, at least. You will see crowds 
of men and women enjoying or admiring one called 
" The Nymphs," where there are thirteen nymphs 
bathing and swinging and reposing themselves upon 
the velvety lawn under the shady trees; while in 
the thicket behind are two " Bohemians," peeping 
through the thick meshes of trees and vines. 

I selected a painting in the French Gallery that 
I should like, by the distinguished artist Bouguereau. 
The subject is "Charity," representing a motherly, 
lovely woman, holding in her arms three orphan 
children, each clinging to her with intense earnest- 



152 Art as an Educator. 

ness, and looking into her face as if instinctively 
knowing that she loves them and would relieve them, 
reading aright her kindly and benevolent expression. 
At her feet a child on either side, nestling closely 
to her, one covering modestly its bare bosom, with 
its arms, the other leaning on two volumes of the 
Bible and pointing its finger closely, as if spelling 
each syllable, toward the word " Evangelium," and 
under it the printed page which could not be read, 
but whose significance is apparent. By the side was 
gold coin spilled out from an iron safe, and in front 
a pile of gold, which was so well represented that 
it seemed as if you could take into your hand each 
piece. The figures were all so life-like and suggest- 
ive and characteristic that I thought what a beau- 
tiful illustration it was of the subject, and what a 
study for those who enjoy, portrayed upon canvas, 
anything which will elevate and refine the soul. 
Pictures upon the wall reveal the taste and character 
of the inmates of the home, and, if of the right 
kind, help to educate and refine us. What we see 
portrayed before us every day must have an effect 
upon the character. On making inquiry of Mr. E. F. 
Andrews, the artist from Columbus, and others, I 



Our CeJite7i7iial. 153 

learned that the painting I admired was one of the 
most valuable in the Exhibition, and could not be 
purchased for less than eight or ten thousand dollars. 

As I walked through the galleries, looking at the 
paintings which attracted me most and trying to 
read the inscriptions — but not often with success — 
these paintings from so many different nations, 
speaking different tongues, nevertheless all breathe 
the same language; and it is a deUght, after visit- 
ing the various departments of the Exhibition, to 
get away from the babel of speech and drink in 
inspiration from these mute representations of truth 
and beauty, as depicted by so many great and 
noble artists. 

There are so many things here to attract admira- 
tion that a fuller description would occupy too 
much space, and perhaps fail to interest our readers. 
The Exposition is a grand success. The grounds 
and location of our own Centennial Exposition in 
1876 were far more picturesque and beautiful, and 
the space occupied more than four times that of the 
Paris Exposition ; and while the arrangement and 
unlimited expense laid out on the buildings of the 
latter make everything almost perfect, and while at 



154 Expenses. 

the same time everything is compact and easily 
reached, yet it appears to me, all things considered, 
that we compared favorably with Paris, and that 
such an impression generally prevails. Paris, being 
so near the other old nations of the world, and her 
own productions making in themselves so grand a 
display, even if no other nation were represented, 
I cannot but feel, comparatively speaking, proud 
of our Centennial Exposition. To-day, but on a 
grander scale, the Exhibition of Paris recalls that 
of Philadelphia, by its general arrangement, by the 
classification of its contents and by the beauty of 
its exhibits. The price of admission is fixed at 
only one franc, or twenty cents, and great crowds 
of peasants, with blue cotton blouses, and their 
wives, with their short, cheap frocks and white caps, 
are to be seen enjoying the best things the world 
can produce. The number of exhibitors amounts 
to some sixty thousand, of whom about one-half 
are from France alone. 

We meet here, as everywhere, a great many Amer- 
icans, and do not find the prices for board at the 
hotels so high as we had been led to expect from 
letters and representations we had ■ seen in news- 



A Parisian Sunday. 155 

papers at home. If one chooses to be imposed 
upon, it is very easy to go to the Grand Hotel and 
pay ten or fifteen dollars a day ; but we found a 
good central location and as pleasant rooms as one 
could wish in the Boulevard Hausmann, at about 
three and a half dollars a day, including all meals. 
Our first meal is coffee and bread and butter, sent to 
our room at nine o'clock in the morning; breakfast, 
cold meat, etc., at twelve m. ; dinner, table d'hote 
(all dine at one table), at half-past six p. m. ; and 
tea at half-past seven in the evening, which gives 
us a good long day for sight-seeing. The weather 
is cool and delightful here, and hence we are enabled 
to go about and accomplish a great deal of sight- 
seeing in a short time. 

On Sunday we attended church at the American 
Chapel. On our way we could notice no difference in 
the appearance of the streets from that of any other 
day in the week. The workmen were busy as usual on 
the splendid stone buildings that are going up all over 
Paris. Stores were open, and on our return, coming 
down the Champs filysees (the finest promenade in 
Europe), a panorama of the greatest gaiety pre- 
sents itself. Upon each side are the numerous 



15^ ^ Patisian Sunday. 

cafes chantajits, for open-air concerts, which on sum- 
mer evenings do not close until midnight. Bands 
of music were playing and crowds were gather- 
ing, for Sunday seems to be the grand holiday for 
Parisians. The central road is thronged with car- 
riages and the side-ways with pedestrians. In the 
evening it was brilliantly illuminated, and one would 
think that the Sabbath was a grand fete day, like 
our national holiday, the Fourth of July. All the 
parks (and they are numerous in Paris) were crowded 
with people, and, with the fountains playing, pre- 
sented an exciting scene. 



iSiiM^ 




XII. 

From Paris to Lucerne .... Lake of the Four Forest 
Cantons .... Ascent of the Rigi ; Scenes at Sunset 

AND Sunrise; the Ranz des Vaches. . . .Fluelen 

Home of Tell.... St. Gothard Pass .... Glacier du 
Rhone. . . .The Hanseck. . . .Sunday at Interlaken. 

Stresa, Italy. 

FROM Paris our ride to Lucerne was mostly 
through a flat, uninteresting country, until we 
enter Switzerland at Miihlhausen, where we leave 
behind us " Oiii, out, inonsieur^'' and hear instead 
" Ja, ja, meiii Herr^ In the morning we get the 
first view of the Rhine at Basle, the greatest rib- 
bon manufactory in Europe. It was at this place 
that we had our first experience with German feather- 
beds. It was a cold, uncomfortable night as we 
entered our rooms, whither we were shown by a 
tidy-looking servant- girl. Now, a German feather- 



158 A Germa?i Bed. 

bed is a peculiar institution — narrow, and so lofty 
that one needs a ladder to mount into it. As you 
trust yourself unwarily to its sleek-looking surface, 
you find yourself sinking into fathomless depths of 
feathers, and as you strive to enter and cover your- 
self for the night, you discover that you must slide 
yourself, sandwich fashion, between two immense 
sacks of down, whose heat and yielding softness, 
especially in summer, soon prove themselves unen- 
durable. For my friend the Doctor, however, it was 
an experience altogether too trying; so he requested 
the chamber-maid, as well as he could, to bring 
him two woolen blankets. Off she ran, with the 
reply, "7"^, j'a, mem Herr,'' and soon returned with a 
glowing face and two additional feather-beds, one 
under each arm — making four in all for an August 
night. It was impossible for him to make her 
understand what he wanted. In France the Doctor 
had rather the advantage of me, insomuch as he 
spoke French, and I did not. But now came my 
turn ; so, at the top of my voice, so that the girl 
might hear me in his room, I essayed to air my 
German, and shouted, " Zwei wollene BettdeckenP 
With a merry laugh all round, the girl hurried oif, 



First View of Switzerland. 159 

and soon brought the blankets, and I had the satis- 
faction of knowing both that my German was 
understood and that the good Doctor was in no 
further danger of being smothered for the night. 

All the way from Paris we notice peasants 
gathering their oats, wheat and hay, using the old- 
fashioned short scythe to cut their grain, and we 
only saw one mowing-machine in the whole dis- 
tance of four hundred miles. As we pass, we 
observe whole families of men, women and children 
seated upon the grass, with their farm implements 
in their hands, resting themselves while the train 
passes, and looking in the distance like a picnic 
party. The morning ride was a delightful one, 
affording our first glimpse of the Bernese Oberland, 
and, riding along Lake Sesaporck, we also get our 
first view of a lake in Switzerland, and our atten- 
tion is attracted by the quaint Swiss houses, their 
thatched roofs laid regularly with flat stones and 
their sides all covered over with small shingles, 
about one by two inches in size, and which, with 
their rounded ends, make them look like the scales 
of a fish. The word " Restauration," painted on 
numerous large buildings, indicated that here was a 



1 60 Lucerne. 

hotel or restaurant. We arrive at Lucerne, situated 
on the western extremity of the Lake of the Four 
Forest Cantons, or " Vierwaldstadter See," and our 
first walk through the town is to see the greatest 
curiosity of the place, a magnificent work of art by 
Thorwaldsen, wrought out of a lofty soHd rock. It 
represents a dying lion, twenty-eight and one-half feet 
in length, transfixed by an arrow, and was designed to 
commemorate the Swiss Guards who died in defend- 
ing the royal family of France in 1792. In front 
is a beautiful lake, with a fountain playing, and 
from the rock beside it a mountain stream leaps 
down. We cannot linger long, and after getting a 
view of the town and lake from the highest emi- 
nence, take the steamer on the lake for Vitznau, to 
ascend the Rigi. 

The lake is said to be one of the most beautiful 
in the world, and from what we had read and 
heard from travelers we were prepared for unusual 
pleasure. Nothing could be more complete and 
satisfying than the grandeur of its mountain scenery, 
the quiet beauty of its banks, and the endless variety 
of its charms. Soon in the distance the Bernese 
Alps present themselves, with their summits covered 




SUMMIT OF THE RIGI 



VITZNAU. 



Ascent of the liigi. i6i 

with snow, and we see the two bays of Alpnach 
and Kiissnacht stretching away to the west and 
east, and giving the lake the form of a cross. At 
Vitznau it seemed as though we had reached the 
end of the lake, for a promontory on the right and 
left somewhat overlap each other. We landed at 
the village of Vitznau, nestling in the little bay, to 
ascend the Rigi. " It would be like going to Rome 
and not seeing the Coliseum, or going to Naples 
and not seeing Pompeii," to come to Switzerland 
and not ascend the Rigi. We can either ascend on 
foot or take the railroad up the mountain three and 
a half miles. \\q prefer the latter, although we do 
not go over three miles an hour, " for every four 
feet of length the line rises one foot." The engine 
does not look like an ordinary locomotive, the boiler 
being upright, and when standing at the station it 
has an odd appearance. Every precaution is taken 
for safety, and the toothed wheel working between 
the rails, by which the train ascends, and the brakes 
by which the car can be held fast to the rack-rail, 
give us faith in the safety of the ascent. Up we 
go, across deep ravines and through tunnels, with 
splendid scenery all around us. The lake below and 



1 62 A Sunset Scene. 

its surrounding views are charming to behold. We 
soon arrive at the summit, which towers up to the 
height of nearly six thousand feet; it is green with 
grass, and cows, sheep and goats are seen feeding 
in every direction. 

We came to view the glorious scenes at sunset 
and at sunrise, but the prospect is gloomy enough. 
It is cold as winter; the rain pours down, and 
clouds cover the valleys and mountains. We go 
out, in our rubber overcoats, to catch every view 
possible. We watch a couple of hours, in hopes of 
obtaining a glimpse of old Sol as he takes his leave 
of us. We soon see his rays reflected upon the 
distant snow-covered Alps, and the gold and silver 
colored clouds, with a long line of greenish tint, 
encourage us to hope that we are to have a view 
to-night which many have been waiting a week to 
witness. We are not disappointed. Soon the clouds 
begin to lift, and form a dark, heavy bank. An 
immense ball of fire seems to drop slowly down, 
throwing its rays all over the horizon, and a scene 
of indescribable beauty presents itself. We hold 
within our vision a circumference of some three hun- 
dred miles — about one hundred and fifty miles of 



View front the Summit. 163 

continuous snow-capped Alps on the east and south, 
with the grand old Jungfrau in the distance. The 
names of the different mountains are given us by 
our guide. Conspicuous stand the mountains of the 
Bernese Oberland. They present a magnificent 
appearance, with their mantles of eternal snow. 
Fourteen lakes are counted in full view. On the 
other side we see the towns of Lucerne, Zurich and 
many villages hugging the mountains by the banks 
of the lakes, and numerous Swiss chalets dotting 
the mountain sides. We linger until driven in-doors 
by the cold. I here undergo another experience in 
trying to sleep between two Dutch feather-beds, one 
above and one below, and, notwithstanding these 
adjuncts to warmth, I do not think that I ever 
suffered so much in one night from the cold. The 
feather-bed which was to cover me was sure to be 
where I could not find it, either on one side of me 
or on the floor; and as I looked around for a strap 
to fasten it over me without success, I was obliged 
to shiver with cold all night. 

We were given warning that if we heard the 
Alpine horn — a wooden instrument some eight feet 
in length — at about half-past three o'clock in the 



1 64 Stmrise. 

morning, it would be an indication that the sun 
could be seen as it started on its journey from the 
east. We jump at the welcome sound, "Tra-da-tra- 
da-dui-da"; it is the ^^ Ranz des vaches^'' thrilling 
out into the fresh morning air, and, obeying its 
echoing notes, a motley crowd rush up the summit. 
A variety of strange costumes are to be seen; for 
men, women and children, fearful of missing the 
sunrise, make a hasty toilet or catch up a blanket 
or shawl. Brides and young ladies have evidently 
neglected the mirror, and, cold and shivering, pace 
to and fro the elevated height, waiting the appear- 
ance of the refulgent orb of day. The peaks of 
snow begin to change their colors, indifferently 
white at first, then yellowish, and at last turning to 
a lovely pink. One bright flash, and the first ray 
of the sun shoots forth. For a moment all is 
silent, then a shout goes up which makes the wel- 
kin ring, and the full splendor of the vast pano- 
rama is displayed. Presently a party of Americans, 
who were on the Belvedere, raised the stirring strains 
of " America," and a band of Swiss minstrels 
(making an Alpine walking tour), in their quaint 
costumes and knapsacks, sang " Praise to the Alps." 



Fluelen. 165 

To me the evening view was more attractive than 
that of the morning. We were fortunate in being 
able to enjoy, on our first visit to the Rigi, views long 
to be remembered, and, well satisfied, take the steam- 
carriage down to Vitznau, and from there pursue our 
way by steamer up the lake to Fluelen, about 
twenty-five miles distant. The lake winds around 
among the mountains, and every little while one is 
surprised with a gallery of new and varied pictures. 
Of all lakes, either in California, the Eastern States, 
Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland or France, this 
is the most beautiful Our own Lake George is 
next in picturesque and beautiful scenery. We 
take diligence at Fliielen through the Furca and St. 
Gothard passes, via Glacier du Rhone, etc., to 
Interlaken. We pass, between Fluelen and Altorf, 
Theodore Tilton (looking as serene as a thunder- 
cloud) and his two daughters, walking. They evi- 
dently came down the lake, and were on their way 
to Altorf to see a colossal statue of William Tell, 
marking the spot where the Swiss hero stood when 
he aimed at the apple on his son's head. Altorf 
is near Biirglen, the birthplace and home of Tell, 
where is also a chapel, painted over with scenes 



1 66 Home of Tell. 

from his life, and supposed to mark the site of his 
house. 

We begin to reahze that we are in the land of 
Tell, as so many of the hotels, restaurants and 
pensions (boarding-houses) are called by his name. 
After crossing the Schachenbach ("in the waters of 
which Tell perished while struggling to save a 
child"), the ascent of St. Gothard is soon begun. It 
is not over a single peak or eminence, but over a 
mountainous group, presenting a wild and magnifi- 
cent appearance, winding around among the mount- 
ains by the River Reuss, which here dashes madly 
along, foaming and leaping over its rocky bed. 
Numerous water-falls come plunging down the declivi- 
ties, and the ride to Andermatt is a grand one. 
We pass the Devil's Bridge and many places of 
historic interest, occasioned by the deadly struggles 
in the wars between France, Germany and Russia 
in 1799. 

The Alps are ranged about a central spot west 
of the St. Gothard Pass, where about a hundred 
square miles of rock, etc., lie above the limits of 
perpetual snow, while the Galenstock and other 
mountains rise to the height of from ten to twelve 



Aiidermatt. 167 

thousand feet. " The waters of this elevated region 
pass by the Rhine to the German Ocean, by the 
Rhone to the Mediterranean, by the Po to the 
Adriatic, and by the Danube to the Black Sea." 
At Andermatt we encountered a snow-storm. It is 
the chief village of the valley. A tunnel is being 
cut through the mountain, which is to be nine and 
a half miles long, and is to be called the St. 
Gothard Tunnel, a wonderful work of engineering. 
It will be the longest one in the world. Workmen 
by the thousand are engaged upon it, and it is to 
be finished in 1880. They have already been at 
work upon it six or eight years. We found a good 
hotel at Andermatt, and although their summer is 
so short for the raising of produce, being only four 
months in duration, they gave us a better dinner, 
and served in better style, than any that we have 
had since coming to Europe, and all for four francs, 
or eighty cents. There were eight different courses, 
with plates removed each time. The courses after 
soup were as follows : fish, roast beef, boiled tongue 
with greens, chicken with salad, plum pudding, cake, 
and, lastly, fruit and nuts. I spent another cold 
night under a feather-bed, and concluded I must 



1 68 Glaciers. 

try something else to keep me warm, if I am to 
remain long in this region of ice and snow. 

Our passage from here, by private conveyance 
and our own good walkers, brought us to the 
Glacier du Rhone, where we first hear the sound of 
an avalanche, hke distant thunder. Our guide had 
spent six years in America, and could therefore talk 
English enough to point out to us all the objects 
of interest — the different mountains and glaciers. 
We pass the Tiefer glacier on the northern flank, and 
the Siedeln glacier on the southern. Hep worth Dixon, 
in " The Switzers," says : " Three years ago a cave was 
entered by this Tiefer glacier, and then the noblest 
crystals in the world were found. The rock was 
topaz. Fragments lay about in heaps, each broken 
piece a hundred or two hundred pounds in weight. 
Some fifteen tons of topaz were removed from this 
great hiding-place of Nature in a single year. What 
sage can count the mounds yet lurking near this 
' Pillar of the Sun ' ? " The descent from the Furca 
Pass is by a series of zigzags, very abrupt, and 
giving the unnecessarily nervous traveler the impres- 
sion that he is going to the bottom with a bound. 
The Rhone glacier — that great sea of ice extending 



The Ha7iseck. 169 

for fifteen miles — is passed, resembling the American 
water-fall at Niagara if frozen up. I walked over 
this consolidated mass and entered a natural grotto 
of ice, winding under the glacier, about eight feet 
high and from one to two hundred feet long. I 
thought that if this mass of ice were in Paris (ice 
beneath us, ice above us, ice all about us), we 
should not have to pay twenty cents a week extra 
for it at our hotel there, as we did. 

We make the ascent of the Hanseck, seven thou- 
sand one hundred and three feet in height, and 
traverse numerous snow-drifts firm enough to bear 
up a horse, and pass the Todtensee. Here, in 1799, 
French and Austrians closed in deadly struggle, and 
the dead were buried in the lake. One would 
naturally suppose that these mountains would be a 
barrier to war. We were glad to get to the Grimsel 
Hospice to rest for the night. This hospice was 
formerly a monastic refuge down among the litde 
lakes, with snow-capped mountains and water-falls all 
around. We were shown a new part to the house, 
where an avalanche came down last year and took 
off a corner. It rained all night, and in the morn- 
ing it was dismal enough; but the idea of spending 



lyo Handeck Falls, 

the Sabbath here, among the noisy guides, when we 
had expected to be at Interlaken, was altogether too 
much for us. We therefore thought it a good time 
to test our rubber overcoats and Western pluck, 
and, although warned that the day would be a 
stormy one, took the bridle-path to Meyringen, over 
what is called a seven-hour walk. As we wound 
our way across the mountains, by the roaring River 
Aar, crossing it many times, with the cataracts 
thundering down the steep declivities, the rain beat- 
ing upon us and the wind whistling about our ears, 
I said to the Doctor : " What is the romance in 
crossing the Alps and not braving a storm ? " " Oh, 
yes," he repHed, "make a virtue of necessity." We 
stopped at the only chalet on the path to Imhof 
and dried our clothes, and then visited the Handeck 
Falls, the finest in Switzerland, where the Aar leaps 
down two hundred and fifty feet at a bound, to 
which, half way down, the Erlenbach, entering at 
right angles, joins its falling waters. Agassiz here 
studied glacial action, and left his name carved on 
the rock of a mountain named after him, which the 
guide pointed out to us. His experiments on glacial 
action proved that one of these glaciers moves at 



Lake Brienz. 171 

the rate of eight inches a day, or eighty-five yards 
a year. We were glad to roam about so lovely a 
spot as Meyringen, where we visit the falls of the 
Alpach and of the Reichenbach. We stopped at 
an excellent hotel, and, finding that the rain had 
penetrated our rubber overcoats, stripped off our wet 
clothes to dry them, and then took diUgence for 
Brienz, and from there by Lake Brienz to Interlaken. 
This lake is nearly surrounded by mountains, and 
it was delightful to glide again over placid waters, 
quite in contrast with the roughness of our day's 
experiences. The clouds had cleared away, and we 
rode on to the Giessbach Falls. Here many passen- 
gers left us to pass the Sabbath. These falls are 
illuminated with Bengola lights, for the benefit of 
visitors, every evening. 

Sunday at Interlaken is delightful, for it is a 
charming place. Our hotel fronts the Jungfrau, 
whence one of the finest views in Switzerland is 
obtained. The mountain this morning was covered 
with snow, and the white, fleecy clouds, lower down, 
lay in folds as beautiful as those of a rich, white 
satin dress. We were tolled to the Scotch Pres- 
byterian Church, and heard an excellent sermon 



172 



Interlaken. 



from Rev. Dr. White, of Edinburgh, which was 
full of rest and refreshment after the week's pleasur- 
ing among the grand scenery of the Alps. I think 
that mountains such as are found in California and 
Switzerland, full of sublime scenery, are an expression 
of God's benediction, — "A pure speaking to the 
spirit of man of that power and love upon which 
the soul may rest as upon the everlasting rock." I 
do not believe it is wise for us to read the vengeance 
of God in the mountain crag, the lightning flash 
and the ocean storm. Does not such a theology as 
has been preached — that God's wrath is depicted in 
the mountains, the thunder and the fury of the 
tempest, as indicative of His power and justice — 
drive us rather to fear than to love Him? 

Interlaken is situated between two lakes (as its 
name implies), about two miles apart. It is supposed 
that these were formerly one body of water, but 
were divided by the earth deposits from the mount- 
ain streams into the two present basins. The 
dividing belt is from one-half to a mile broad, and 
about two miles long. From here numerous excur- 
sions can be made up the mountains, and the one 
that we chose for our day's delectation was by the 



The Schyjiige Platte. 173 

bridle-path up the Schynige Platte, six thousand one 
hundred and eighty feet high. We were dehghted 
with the views of the valleys and lakes — Thun and 
Brienz, and the Snow Mountains — which seem just 
across the narrow valley from us, glittering in the 
sunshine like Peruvian silver, and appearing to 
belong more to heaven than to earth. 




]g][MltMl^[M |lMl|H|| Ml P<l |M |W N N N W N N W 



XIII. 

Description of the Swiss Capital Geneva and its 

Historic Associations .... Lovely Lake Leman.... 
The Vale of Chamouni. . . .Mer de Glace .... Over 
the Simplon Pass .... Farewell to Switzerland. 

Stresa, Italy. 

WE leave beautiful Interlaken with regret, pass- 
ing down Lake Thun for Berne. On both 
sides of the lake are rustic villages, and hill-sides 
dotted here and there with chalets, villas and gar- 
dens, backed by the snowy giants of the Oberland. 
Berne is the capital of the Swiss Confederacy, 
and one of the most ancient cities in Europe. It 
was market-day when we arrived, and a good 
opportunity was thus afforded of seeing the peasantry 
and market people, with their quaint costumes and 
odd style of vehicles. Here the houses are so con- 
structed as to form an arcade over the foot-ways, 
174 



Berne. 175 

through which we traversed the city. This, in cold, 
snowy weather, or rainy (as it is to-day), has its 
advantages; but, as we walked through the Regent 
Street Quadrant, the stores looked dark and gloomy, 
while all the goods seemed to be exposed outside 
the shops, and as we pass along we notice the 
trading going on with the different customers out- 
side. The old clock- tower is a noticeable feature. 
" Whenever the clock strikes, at three minutes before 
the hour, a cock crows and flaps his wings; pres- 
ently some bears march in procession round an old 
man, and the cock crows again. Then a fool strikes 
the hour on a bell with a hammer, while the old 
man checks off the strokes with his scepter, and 
turns his hour-glass. A bear nods approval, and a 
final bout of cock-crowing ends the performance." 

A rich agricultural district lies between Berne 
and Lausanne, and at this latter place we obtain 
our first view of Lake Geneva, along whose lovely 
banks the remainder of our route by rail passes to 
the city of the same name. The view of the lake 
and the ghmpse of the distant mountains from our 
window in the Hotel National, in the morning, are 
very striking. Geneva is the largest city in Switzer- 



176 Geneva, 

land, and is about the size of Columbus. Our ride 
through the city this cool, delightful morning will 
not soon be forgotten, nor the many places of inter- 
est we visited — among others the Cathedral in which 
Calvin preached, where we stood beneath the canopy 
of the pulpit which he occupied and sat in his chair, 
and afterward visited the house where he lived for 
nineteen years, and where, in 1564, he died. Near 
by is the Hotel de Ville (City Hall), the tower of 
which was built in the fifteenth century. In order 
to enter the council chamber we ascend a paved 
inclined plane, used instead of a staircase, to the 
height of four or five stories, and which the old 
Councilmen themselves, in former times, used to 
enter on horseback. 

The place of most interest to us in this building 
was the small chamber, about twenty-two feet by 
thirty, where sat the Arbitration Commissioners on 
the Alabama Claims, in 1872. There are only two 
windows in the room, opening out upon a bushy 
garden. On the right, as you enter, you notice a 
handsome white marble tablet in commemoration of 
the American Commission, dated Geneva, 14th Sep- 
tember, 1872, etc., etc. Inscribed in French on the 



Historic Associations. 177 

other side is a like tablet in commemoration of 
some Swiss Commission. As we leave the apart- 
ment we notice on the right photographs of the 
American Commissioners and their ladies, prom- 
inent among whom are Chief Justice Waite and 
Hon. Charles Francis Adams, with their wives. On 
the other side are the English Commissioners. Not 
far away is the Academic, a beautiful stone build- 
ing. It contains the Bibliotheque Publique and a 
great number of manuscripts, among which are 
autograph letters of Calvin, Luther, Melancthon, 
etc. There are also a great number of portraits. 
We asked for one of Servetus, the Spanish Unitarian 
condemned to be burned by Calvin. The guide 
shook his head, but presently brought it to us, after 
several times being requested to do so. I watched 
him as he returned it to its hidden place in one 
comer of the library. The label under it is in 
French, which, translated, runs, " Burnt in Geneva, 
to the honor and glory of God." We inquired of 
the guide as to the spot where Servetus was burned, 
and he pointed to the window and replied in French, 
"The place is all covered over with buildings." 
Geneva is a quiet, beautiful spot — the most 
12 



178 Lake Geneva. 

attractive place in which to pass a few months of 
leisure of any we have seen in Switzerland. The 
environs, commanding views of Mont Blanc and 
the distant mountains, are all that one could wish. 
The Lake of Geneva (Lake Lemanus of the Romans) 
is in the shape of a crescent, and so much has 
been written, sung and preached in its praise that 
almost every one seems to have some acquaintance 
with it. As we take a delightful ride, viewing the 
beautiful villages and cultivated fields upon its banks, 
we notice that the color of the water is blue, while 
that of the other Swiss lakes is green. Byron has 
written more than any other poet about Lake Leman, 
and many will call to mind the lines : 

" Lake Leman wooes me with its crystal face, 
The mirror where the stars and mountains view 
The stillness of their aspect in each trace 
Its clear depth yields of their fair height and hue." 

Our all- day ride by coach and six (or rather dil- 
igence) to Chamouni, with its varied scenery, and in 
full view of Mont Blanc, was simply charming. On 
our arrival, the clouds lifted from the mountains, 
around which they had clung for a week, showing 



Mont Blaiic. 179 

Mont Blanc in all his glory, towering up to an alti- 
tude of fifteen thousand seven hundred and eighty- 
one feet. Standing in the little vale of Chamouni, 
right under this monarch of hills, at the foot of the 
Glacier du Bossons, we witnessed the setting sun 
reflecting his splendors upon the snow. It was an 
awe-inspiring scene, only equaled by our first sight, 
from Inspiration Point, of the Yosemite Valley, in 
California. The Yosemite Vahey, however, is much 
longer and wider and grander than the valley of 
Chamouni, and there is no scenery in Switzer- 
land or the world to compare with it, remembering, 
as one does, its towering walls of granite, its numer- 
ous water-falls, and the stream of the Yosemite itself 
plunging precipitously down two thousand five 
hundred feet. We must ascend Montanvert, six 
thousand three hundred and two feet high, and see 
the Mer de Glace (sea of ice), and so we rise 
early, and with our guide and fifty other goats, each 
of the latter with a bell, however, start at six a. m. 
on our tramp. The goats, going to their mountain 
pastures, soon outstrip us in the race, as they run 
up the steep rocks, while we wind round and round 
to seek an easier ascent. 



i8o The Mer de Glace. 

We cross the Mer de Glace with great difficulty— 
the ice is so slippery and such immense crevasses 
meet us. We look into one worn by the running 
water to a depth of three hundred feet, and stick 
our alpenstocks hard into the ice, not wishing to 
descend into the depths of this frightful well. Around 
us on every side are mountains of snow, with Mont 
Blanc towering above them all. We descended by 
the " Mauvais Fas,'' cut in the side of the cliffs, 
and although at one place we would gladly have 
stopped to admire the scene, our guide hurried us 
on, for we heard the sound of crashing rocks, and, 
looking up, saw how little apparently kept them 
from coming down upon us. We catch the echo of 
the avalanche in the distance, and quicken our pace. 
At length we approach the glacier. Far down in 
the valley stands a little clump of Swiss cottages, 
looking as if at any moment they might be swept 
away by the snow and ice. Our ride lies across the 
Tete Noire, to Martigny, about nine hours distant, 
passing several glaciers and down by little villages, 
where we notice numerous walls to ward off the fall 
of the avalanches. Here the women are the burden- 
bearers, and we meet them in the narrow paths with 



The SimploTi Pass. i8i 

great loads of hay, covering their entire bodies save 
their lower limbs. This hay they are conveying from 
their little meadow-patches, where it is prepared foi 
the barn, situated usually underneath their houses, 
and whence the debris from their stables is thrown 
out and heaped up directly under their windows. 
Everywhere we encounter them in the winding paths, 
laden like pack-mules with their grassy burdens, and 
are sometimes obliged to back out in order to pass 
them, and occasionally we even come into lively col- 
Hsion with each other — incidents which add to the 
interest of the day. 

A night's rest at Martigny, before starting over 
the Simplon Pass into Italy, was very acceptable. 
The road we take across the Alps was constructed 
by Napoleon after the famous battle of Marengo, 
and our ride to-day of twenty-two hours, to Stresa, 
on Lago Maggiore, culminated in the most magnifi- 
cent scenery which we had looked upon in our two 
weeks of enchanting Swiss travel. This grand pan- 
orama of the Alps cannot be described ; its real 
grandeur is beyond the power of words to paint, 
but its varied scenes will long be vividly impressed 
upon our memory. On the summit of the pass, six 



1 82 The Simplon Pass. 

thousand six hundred feet high, is the Hospice, 
managed by Augustine monks, an immense building 
standing out alone and capable of entertaining three 
hundred souls. No charge is made for entertain- 
ment, but all are expected to give something toward 
the support of the Catholic Church, We are glad 
to be on the descent once more; we pass through 
gigantic tunnels hewn out of solid rock, with the 
water from the glaciers rushing down over and under 
the roadway, and even trickling in through the look- 
outs in the tunnel — the rushing torrents affording us 
views of a wondrous variety of water-falls. I thought 
the most sublime sight of a deep gorge that I ever 
saw was the Arkansas Canon, in Colorado; but our 
ride this afternoon along the boiling waters of the 
Fressinone, where the rocks rise almost perpendicu- 
larly more than two thousand feet, and the roadway 
is hewn out of the solid wall, was certainly a 
grander view. 

We have now been about two weeks in Switzer- 
land, among its mountains of snow and ice, its 
beautiful lakes and shifting glaciers, and the change 
from a bracing atmosphere, where we needed our 
warmest winter clothing and overcoats, to the warm 



Farewell to Switzerland. 183 

sunshine and balmy air of Italy, is indeed remarkable. 
We come suddenly upon the beautiful Lake Maggiore, 
with charming islands studding its bosom, and stop 
to rest for the Sabbath at the lovely village of Stresa, 
surrounded by fine scenery both of land and water, 
and here obtain our first realizing view of sunny 
Italy. 

Switzerland is certainly a wonderful country, and to 
Swiss scenery I have but vainly tried to do justice. 
Its impression is amazing, and is beyond the reach 
even of the poet to adequately express. " Nature- 
like, her own atmospheric influences come upon the 
imagination with imperceptible but overpowering 
force, and will not let herself be scanned and her 
features accurately described. She is very lofty, 
pure and divine, hiding herself from the gaze of 
man, and with depths of meaning that are no more 
to be fathomed than the divine source from which 
they sprang." 




E^SS3^S^^^^-^:r>?-&-&^^-^l 



XIV. 

Sunny Italy .... Lago Maggiore and the Borromean 
Islands. .. .Milan and its Cathedral .... The City 
OF Palaces. . . .Monument to Columbus. . . .Pisa: the 
Campo Santo, Duomo and Leaning Tower. . . .Rome: 
Festival of the Assumption of the Virgin: St. 
Peter's, The Vatican, and their Art Treasures. 

Rome, Italy. 

WE spent a delightful Sabbath at Lake Maggiore, 
the largest of all the Italian lakes that lie 
embosomed in the beautiful scenery at the foot of 
the Alps. The most charming view of the Lake is 
from the little village of Stresa, with the Borromean 
Islands in full sight. The sail around them by 
moonlight, with the peculiar, mellow Italian sky 
bounding the horizon, the placid waters of the lake, 
the Alps in distant view, and the numerous houses 
upon the islands gay with lights, together with the 



Lake Maggiore. 185 

sweet sound of evening bells, and nought else to 
break the silence but the keel of the boat as it 
divides the rippling waves, afforded an hour of 
pleasure which we will never forget. Departing 
from the splendid hotel, we gaze back regretfully 
upon the unequaled scenery of the spot. There 
was Church of England service, with preaching, in 
the parlors of the hotel. The rector prayed for 
the Queen of England, the Prince of Wales, the 
royal family and all in authority in England, the 
King of Italy, and for the President of the United 
States. The latter was feebly responded to ; but one 
was present from Ohio who rang out the response 
so earnestly as unintentionally to attract observation. 
My first sight of the Italian people was at the 
Cathedral, where I attended service on Sunday 
afternoon, and heard a sermon in Italian from 
the priest. The congregation, composed mostly of 
women and children, seemed to be from the poorer 
class of people. Not a woman or girl present had 
on a bonnet, but they wore instead bright-colored 
shawls drawn closely over their heads, and when 
out of doors, in the hot sun, many went with their 
heads uncovered. Our passage down the lake and 



1 86 Milan and its Cathedral. 

by railroad, giving us a magnificent view of the 
Alps from Somma (where a battle between Scipio 
and Hannibal took place, B. C. 218), and on to 
Milan, was miinteresting. Here we are introduced 
to Italian life. The great attraction of Milan is the 
grand old Cathedral, the Duomo, the largest Gothic 
edifice in the world. On entering, one's sight is 
greeted with a forest of pillars, fifty-two in number, 
extending in four rows the whole length of the 
building — four hundred and seventy-seven feet. As 
you walk up and down between these magnificent 
columns you begin to realize something of the size 
of the building and the beauty of its proportions. 
Immediately within the nave, a meridian line has 
been laid down across the mosaic pavement of red, 
white and blue marble. This the sun's rays cross 
at mid-day. The church itself is built of white 
marble, and a part was shown us which was but 
just finished. We ascended to the roof and tower. 
There is a central tower and spire, and the building 
literally bristles with pinnacles, which give it an 
indescribably light and airy effect, in spite of its 
immense size. There are six thousand marble 
statues adorning its exterior, and there is room for 



Milan and its Cathedral, 187 

fifteen thousand more. A new one is added every 
little while, to the number, perhaps, of from fifteen 
to twenty a year. Some of them are of great merit, 
and it is said that for one, " Rebecca," the Empress 
of Russia, noticing it as she passed, offered twenty- 
five thousand francs, or five thousand dollars. Not 
a statue is allowed to be put in position unless it 
has merit. One part of the ornamentation upon the 
roof, a view of which we obtain from the tower, is 
called the " Flower Garden," on account of its 
numerous floral decorations in marble. The present 
cathedral was begun in 1386. It is very nearly the 
size of St. Paul's, in London, and, with the exception 
of the grand cathedral at Seville, may be considered 
next in dimensions to St. Peter's at Rome. The 
view from the tower is the finest to be had from 
any church tower in the world — to the north and 
west the Alps, to the east the line of the Mediter- 
ranean, and to the west the Adriatic Sea. The 
battle-field of Magenta and the scenes of various 
other historic conflicts are visible. There are eighty 
churches in Milan, among which we visited that of 
St. Ambrose, dating from the twelfth century. A 
Catholic priest showed us the iron gates shut by the 



1 88 Genoa. 

Archbishop against the Emperor Theodosius until 
he had made repentance for the destruction of some 
five or six thousand men for some trivial cause. 

As we walked up and down the beautiful covered 
arcade, the largest in the world, where the principal 
retail trade is carried on, we noticed the splendidly 
dressed, dark-complexioned, black-eyed Italian ladies, 
with only black veils on their heads, which depended 
gracefully behind. Not one, I think, had on a hat 
or bonnet. Most of their dresses seemed to be of 
black material, and some were elegantly trimmed 
with red. On the streets, many of the women that 
we saw were without any coverings to their heads 
in the hot sun, though some carried parasols. 

Our ride to Genoa, the " City of Palaces," was 
through a level region until we entered the Apennine 
district. Genoa is of about the same size as Milan — 
over two hundred thousand population — but quite 
in contrast as to situation. About Milan it is flat 
and level as about Columbus; while Genoa, in the 
inequalities of its situation, is one of the finest and 
loveliest places in the world. It is a " splendid 
amphitheater, terrace rising above terrace, garden 
upon garden, palace upon palace, height upon height." 



Monume7it to Columbus. 189 

The first bank in the world of which we have any 
record, the " Bank of St. George," was in existence 
here before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, and was 
making loans and receiving deposits at that time. 
The building is now occupied as the Custom House. 
Genoa has erected a splendid monument in honor 
of Columbus, who was born near by, at Cogoleto. 
It is of white marble, surmounted by a splendid 
statue of the great discoverer, w^hich rests upon an 
anchor, with the kneeling figure of America at his 
feet. Around are the allegorical figures of Religion, 
Wisdom, Force and Geography, in a sitting posture, 
between which are reliefs representing the scenes in 
his history. In the little park surrounding the 
whole, the plants — -pampas grass, colodiums, callas, 
etc. — seemed singularly appropriate, and made us 
think of home. Genoa is one of the most flourish- 
ing, growing cities we have seen. Numerous fine 
buildings and various improvements are in progress, 
and it has one of the best war harbors in the 
world. 

The ride by rail to Pisa, along the Mediterranean, 
was sufficiently varied. We passed, I should think, 
through at least ten tunnels \ we rushed through 



190 Pisa, 

promontories; rounded a beautiful bay; and then, 
through the marble mountains, dashed past the 
world-famous quarries of Carrara, and came at length 
to Pisa, where we get our first view of the Amo. The 
romance is all taken out of the " beautiful " Amo 
when we see what a turbid stream it is. We pass 
the Campo Santo (cemetery), where fifty-three ship- 
loads of holy ground from Palestine were brought 
by Archbishop Ubaldo, in A. D. 1200, that in it the 
devout might find burial. Here stands one of the 
wonders of the world, the Leaning Tower. It is 
one hundred and fifty-one feet in height and twelve 
feet out of perpendicular, and, as you look up from 
the base on the side that overhangs your head, you 
are inclined to get out of the way, not caring to 
be crushed, although it has been in that position 
for over seven hundred years. This was a fete 
day, and the splendid cathedral was filled with 
people. This edifice is considered remarka.bly per- 
fect architecturally. Its interior contains, among other 
interesting objects, the celebrated bronze lamp, hang- 
ing in the nave, which is said to have first suggested 
to Galileo the idea of the pendulum. The Cathe- 
dral, together with the Baptistery and Leaning Tower, 



Birth-place of Galileo. 191 

is in an open part of the city; and being in close 
vicinity to each other, they form in themselves an 
imposing and unrivaled group. They are constructed 
of white and colored marbles, and their style of 
architecture is grand and impressive. Pisa was once 
a flourishing city, but now looks old and dilapidated. 
The house is shown in which Galileo was born, 
opposite the beautiful little chapel of San Andrea. 
Over the door is a white marble slab : " Here was 
born Galileo Galilei, February 15, 1564." Here, as in 
all Italian cities, are numerous old churches and other 
places of interest; but of these a passing traveler 
can only select a few of the most notable for descrip- 
tion. Scarcely a foot of Italian soil is other than 
a pilgrimage. 

The country between Pisa and Rome, for over 
two hundred miles, is desolate enough, with scarcely 
a habitation below Civita Vecchia. As we enter 
Rome, the end and goal of our travel is reached, and 
we begin to see at once those relics of antiquity 
dating back more than two thousand years, and 
w^hich possess so vast and varied a history from the 
time of Romulus to the present. As we enter the 
city we catch a glimpse of the ruins of the Temple 



192 Rome, 

of Minerva Medica, and a part of the ancient wall 
of Servius Tullius, built 578 B. C. Everywhere, as 
we ride through the old city, we are reminded by 
the ruins that we are in Rome, and realize why 
pilgrims flock to it to-day as they have hitherward 
flocked for nearly two thousand years. It was for- 
merly considered imprudent to visit Rome in July 
and August, but now it is as clean as any city we 
have passed through, and old residents consider it 
as healthy in these months as any other Italian city. 
The weather is no hotter here than in Columbus. 
The thermometer stands, out of doors, in the mid- 
dle of the day, at from eighty to ninety degrees, 
and in-doors at seventy. The evenings and nights 
are delightful, and a cool breeze meets us as we ride 
about the city. We rest during the middle of the 
day, but clothe ourselves in our warm, woolen flan- 
nels to avoid the deadly chill as we enter the old 
Catacombs under ground, and also the cool atmos- 
phere in the thick-walled churches, where the heat 
and light of the sun do not penetrate. One cannot 
be too careful in. regard to atmospheric changes 
when traveling abroad. 

It was during our stay here that the grand annual 



Festival of the Asswnptio7i. 193 

festival of the '• Assumption of the Virgin " was held, 
on August 15, in the Basilica of Sta. Maria Mag- 
giore, which is the oldest church edifice in the city, 
founded A. D. 352. Business places are closed, and 
it seems everywhere like Sunday, for the people are 
all out for a holiday. The services in the church 
are grand and imposing. We were especially de- 
lighted with the music at vespers, which always calls 
forth a great crowd of the best people, and, indeed, 
all classes go with their families to hear this music, 
for which great preparation had been going on for 
months. The voices of about fifty male singers 
poured forth glorious and harmonious strains, such 
as one may often hear at any of our great concerts. 
The soprano was especially fine, and attracted much 
attention. We looked around for a female singer, 
but on inquiry were told, " No ladies can perform 
here; the voice comes from a eunuch." We had an 
opportunity of seeing the Italians in their holiday 
attire, and the better class of ladies appeared in 
their fashionable dresses, just as ours do in America; 
but the poorer classes looked dowdy, and many of 
them wore bodices, in bright colors, different in 
material from the skirt. The Pope usually comes 
13 



194 Festival of the Assumption, 

out on the balcony and gives the benediction from 
there. During this festival high mass is performed 
in his presence ; but since Victor Emmanuel became 
king of Italy and took up his residence in Rome, 
the late Pope considered himself a prisoner, and 
kept himself shut up in the Vatican. The present 
Pope does the same, and therefore much of the 
attractiveness of these holidays has passed away, 
and Rome is not what it used to be in the days of 
the temporal supremacy of the church. 

There was a large number of cardinals and 
priests in the chapel where the music was performed. 
They occupied two rows of seats, arranged like 
those of an amphitheater, around the choir, and 
were dressed in all their splendor of gold, black, 
white and crimson robes. Those in black and crim- 
son had a kind of white lace cape thrown over their 
shoulders. They were all old men and had splendid 
heads. The young ecclesiastics present looked as 
earnest, devout and intelligent as any of our theo- 
logical students in Princeton or Andover. We 
notice confessions going on, and the old priest 
would take a rod occasionally and rap the woman 
confessing, as though something were wrong, and 



Sf. Peter's. 195 

the penitent would depart, I suppose with full abso- 
lution granted. It was interesting to notice confes- 
sionals with signs over them for the Italians, the 
French, the Spaniards, the Germans, the English, 
etc. The good Lord understands all languages, and 
no doubt will forgive them their short-comings if 
they are sincere, even though forgiveness be asked 
through a priest. 

We have seen so much here that one is at a loss 
to know where to begin and where to leave off, 
when all that may be said of the Eternal City 
must be confined within the moderate bounds 
of an ordinary chapter. Our first visit was natu- 
rally to St. Peter's, the largest church edifice in 
the world, built on the site where once stood 
a temple of Jupiter. "There has only been a 
change in spelling — Jupiter having merely given 
way to Jew-Peter." Our approach to the church, 
after first gazing at the wonderful dome and trying 
to realize its beauty, was through the immense 
colonnades which sweep around on either side of 
the great piazza. These colonnades contain each 
one hundred and forty-two columns, forty-two feet 
high, and inclose an area, elliptical in shape, of 



196 Sf. Petefs. 

nearly eight hundred feet, through which the Pope 
and cardinals march or drive when they go in proces- 
sion to the church. These immense colonnades have 
a grand and imposing appearance, and prepare one 
for the awe-inspiring building which he is about to 
enter, through the great pillars of the portico, whose 
dimensions are two hundred and thirty-five feet in 
length, forty-two in width and sixty-six in height. 
When you enter you are at first disappointed, and 
not until you walk the whole length of the building, 
six hundred and thirteen feet, and view the dome, 
transept, nave and grand arches, and the immense 
space between the pillars, do you begin to compre- 
hend that you are in the largest and most splendid 
building in the world. We walked about and tried 
many times to realize where we were, and found that 
each time enlarged our mental capacity, so that our 
ideas began to expand sufficiently to get a full and 
overpowering conception of the magnitude and glory 
of St. Peter's. Some one has made a calculation that 
"a dozen churches of the size of Trinity Church of 
New York could be set within it, the fronts and 
steeples grouped around in a close circle, and there 
would be abundant room, while the top of the 



The Vatican. 197 

cluster of spires would not reach within an hundred 
feet of the inside of the dome." If the buildings on 
Broad street, from High street to the Irving House, 
north to Gay street and west to High street and 
south to Broad street, were cleared away, there 
would be about room enough for St. Peter's Church, 
and to include the Vatican you would have to go 
as far east as the Cathedral. 

The Vatican, in which the Pope and seventy-two 
cardinals reside, is entered from the end of the 
right colonnade of the piazza of St. Peter's, and 
contains four thousand four hundred and twenty- 
two rooms. It covers a space of one thousand 
one hundred and fifty-one feet in length by seven 
hundred and sixty-seven in breadth, so the Pope's 
prison is a large one, and he has plenty of room 
to receive his friends, and enough paintings, etc., 
to cultivate his aesthetic tastes. The day on 
which we visited the Vatican was his reception 
day, and a great crowd were seeking admis- 
sion, mostly ladies, handsomely dressed, with the 
black lace veil hanging over their heads, and fall- 
ing over their shoulders to the ground. They 
seemed very happy and chatty, and many of them 



198 The Vatica?i. 

were handsome brunettes. We went first to the Sis- 
tine Chapel, where are the fi-escoes of Michael Angelo, 
which make it one of the art treasuries of the world. 
His " Last Judgment " is at the end of the chapel. 
The flat central portion of the ceiling contains nine 
pictures, the arched sides of the ceiling twelve. All 
the other frescoes in this room are by masters of the 
fifteenth century. Three rooms in the Vatican were 
decorated by Raphael, and they are considered 
among his chief productions in fresco. The " Dis- 
puta " is said to be one of his finest. We examined 
all the pictures by Raphael, Murillo and others 
among the noblest artists that the world has pro- 
duced, seeking so to cultivate our tastes and feelings 
that we might truly enjoy these precious works. In 
one room are only three pictures; of these the 
" Transfiguration," by Raphael, which was unfinished 
at the time of his death, and is considered his 
masterpiece, is the most attractive and the oftenest 
copied. The works of art in the Vatican form a 
collection unparalleled in extent, interest and value, 
and it would take months to thoroughly examine 
them. 



XV. 

Reminiscences of Rome.... The Coliseum. .. .Ancient 

Baths and Catacombs .... The Quirinai Bay and 

City of Naples. . . .Ascent of Vesuvius. . . .Pompeii 
AND ITS Wonders Off for New Scenes. 

Ro77ic, Italy. 

TAKING a carriage, we ride over the Appian 
Way toward Albano, passing numerous old 
ruins of palaces, arches, tombs, churches, catacombs, 
etc., dating back two thousand years. The Campagna 
of Rome is a pure source of unfailing delight. St. 
Paul came into Rome a prisoner for trial, and the 
place is shown us where he was met by his friends 
from the city, and he " thanked God and took cour- 
age." We see in the distance the Sabine Mountains, 
calling to mind that old tale of history, that the 
Romans, over two thousand years ago, became 
wife-hungry, and carried off the Sabine women 
199 



200 The Coliseum 

to fill the wifely office. The names of Caesar, 
Cicero, etc., who took a prominent part in the world 
in their day, and who walked these streets and 
inhabited these now crumbling ruins, recall that 
which seemed to me almost a fable, when, as a boy, 
I read Cicero's masterly orations in his native 
tongue, and Virgil and Sallust; and now I am 
among the scenes narrated. We visit the old 
Mamertine Prison. It is said that St. Peter and 
St. Paul were imprisoned here, and a hole in the 
staircase in the wall is shown us, protected by iron 
bars, said to be the impression of St. Peter's head, 
when pushed against it by the jailer. 

The Coliseum is, perhaps, one of the most interest- 
ing of ancient amphitheaters, and fills every pilgrim 
with wonder at its vast proportions. It is in the form 
of an ellipse and more than a third of a mile in 
circumference ; it accommodated nearly one hundred 
thousand spectators, and must have been one of the 
grandest works of architecture that ever existed. 
Here thousands of the earher Christians suffered 
martyrdom, by being thrown into the arena to be 
torn and devoured by savage beasts, while the 
thousands of spectators cheered and shouted with 



Anciejit Baths. 201 

delight. The pens for the wild animals that were 
used in these gladiatorial exhibitions are still to be 
seen, together with many other local antiquarian 
discoveries. 

We pass an obelisk brought from Egypt, where it 
was erected seventeen hundred years before Christ. 
In the Church of St. John Lateran they show us 
the tabernacle said to contain the heads of St. Peter 
and St. Paul. We enter the portico containing 
the Scala Santa, or Holy Staircase, said to have 
been ascended by our Saviour on his way to the 
Judgment Hall of Pilate. The staircase can only 
be mounted on one's knees. It was whilst Luther 
was making the ascent of the Scala Santa that he 
remembered the text, " The just shall live by faith," 
and, arising from his knees, he abruptly left . the 
place, and from that time commenced his grand 
work and labor in the great Reformation which 
shook the world with its influence and power. The 
Baths of Caracalla were opened A. D. 216, and 
extended over an area which measured a quarter 
of a mile each way. The wonderful luxury of 
the ancient Romans, as depicted in all these ruins, 
is nowhere more vividly exemplified than here, 



202 Hie Catacombs. 

where magnificent baths were erected, computed to 
have been sufficiently large to accommodate six- 
teen hundred persons at the same time, together 
with their adjuncts of libraries and lecture-rooms 
under the same roof. Besides these, there were seven 
other baths in imperial Rome of the same descrip- 
tion. We descended into the Catacombs, where are 
the tombs of the early Christians and the places 
where they assembled for worship, for fear of being 
murdered by the pagans if their meetings should be 
discovered. The whole road called the Appian Way 
seemed to be lined with sepulchers, so that one here 
gets a good idea of the immense tombs which bor- 
der the various other highways out of the city. 
Indeed, I have been so much about and among 
these old ruins that I begin to fear that, unless I 
stop and see something else, I myself shall turn into 
a mummy. The Quirinal HiU is one of the most 
beautiful parts of Rome, and from it we obtain a 
splendid view of the city. The palace of the same 
name is occupied by the King and Queen of Italy. 
This building also contains an immense number of 
paintings. Indeed, one could spend months in 
examining the various works of art, both in private 



The Pantheon. 203 

and public collections, as well as the antiquities 
which abound in Rome and its environs. The Pan- 
theon, near the corner of the principal street of the 
city— founded B. C. 27— is the best preserved of 
any of its ancient edifices, and in it rest the bodies 
of Raphael, the prince of painters, and Victor 
Emmanuel, the first king of United Italy. The 
portico of this old temple (which is greatly admired) 
is one hundred and ten feet long and forty- 
four wide, and is supported on sixteen columns. 
The interior is one hundred and forty-three feet in 
diameter, and the dome has the peculiarity of being 
open at the top, and the efiect of the passing clouds, 
as one gazes up from the pavement below, is both 
unique and interesting. 

We enter the Church of St. Paul, on the tradi- 
tional site of the Apostle's execution. It incloses 
three fountains, which are said to have broken forth 
in the spots where the decapitated head of St. Paul 
three times touched the ground. The Basilica of 
St. Paul, which was burned in 1823, is more modern 
than the other churches, and is remarkable for its 
floors, columns, altars, etc., of the most splendid 
marble in Italy. Of these there are about seven 



204 Naples, 

kinds in the floor alone, polished like glass and most 
beautiful and refreshing to the eye after rambling 
among the mosaics and marble floors and columns 
of two thousand years ago. 

But how can we leave Italy without seeing 
Naples, Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum ? So 
we take the cars on a beautiful night, with the 
mellow light of the moon falling on these ancient 
ruins as we hurry by, giving them a peculiar, monu- 
mental look of the past, and in the morning arrive 
at Naples in time to wander through the streets, 
where we see all around us a city reminding us 
more of the towns of modern Egypt than of Europe. 
The asses, with immense loads of semi-tropical 
fruits, covering them all except their legs and ears 
wdth the heaped-up baskets; the swarthy men, more 
like Arabs than like Europeans; the great loads of 
men, women and children, piled swarming into a 
two-horse vehicle like a cart; together with the 
uproar and confusion of the streets, made me think 
of the descriptions that we hear of Cairo or of 
Alexandria. We drive for miles along the beautiful 
shores, and stop at the ^'Hotel Royal des Etrangers^- 
with a splendid outlook upon the bay, and Vesuvius 
on fire in the distance. 



Ascefit of Vesuvius. 205 

Along this lovely bay we must go at once, twelve 
miles by train to Pompeii, and make our arrange- 
ments to ascend Vesuvius. We have some trouble 
in getting started on horseback. The guides want 
extra pay after the bargain is concluded. Italians 
are notorious for their duplicity, and you must have 
everything positive and well understood between you 
and them before you start, or trouble will come on 
settlement. As I mounted my horse half a dozen 
beggars jumped as if they would hold him, put my 
foot in the stirrup, etc., and all wanted pay. Finally 
we got started. I found two guides had laid hold 
of my horse's tail and were urging him forward at 
a break-neck speed. I let him go, and they man- 
aged to keep up with him, running as fast as he in 
the hot sun, giving me thus some idea of the speed 
with which the Arabians run beside their horses in 
the desert. We pass fig-orchards and immense vine- 
yards, for grapes flourish clear up to the very foot 
of Vesuvius. Beggars annoy us at every village, 
and we notice that women are out of doors and in 
the fields with nothing on their heads, and that men 
and women and children are lying by the roadside 
resting in the broiling sun. The houses all have flat 
roofs, and their inmates sit out upon them, doing there 



2o6 Ascent of Vesuvius, 

also their washing and other work, thus giving every- 
thing quite an Oriental appearance. After riding for 
some miles, we alight to make the ascent to the crater 
on foot. Then appears another swarm of beggars to 
assist you up the steep mountain and through the 
rugged sweep of loose masses of pumice-stone. 
They evidently want to render some assistance, so I 
finally arrange with one of them to pull me .up with 
a rope. Another comes along and pushes at my 
back, while others want to get a chair, etc., all for 
pay, of course; but I conclude that one is enough. 
He finally balks, and says, in broken English, " I 
no horse." He banters me to hire the others to help. 
I leave him, and tell him that I have no need of 
him. Finally he goes on, and after numerous halts 
for a new bargain, etc., we get half the way up. 
The others drop off, and I am not annoyed any 
more. 

As we reach the top of Vesuvius we see the 
sulphur all around us and smell the hellish com- 
pounds, which are almost unendurable. The fire 
and smoke and terrible rumbling sounds, as if an 
outbreak or eruption were about to take place, come 
from a hillock in the shape of a cone, one hundred 



View frofn the Stmtmit 207 

feet high, forming the center of the crater, and 
which is surrounded by a circular ditch about two 
hundred feet deep and five hundred feet wide, whose 
inner wall is, I should think, a mile in circumfer- 
ence, which bounds the outer area of the crater. 
The sulphur coating the cone, from which the 
smoke and fire are emitted, is of a brilliant and 
beautiful color. The molten lava lies seething at 
the bottom of the cone, and as the terrible sounds 
belch forth, it would seem the wisest part of valor 
to hurry away, if ever we would see our friends in 
Columbus again ; but the guides inform us that there 
is " no danger." A copper coin is put into a stream 
of melted lava, and we bring away with us a piece 
of it with the imprint. The view below us is 
superb. The beautiful bay, as it gracefully curves 
around toward Naples, the distant villas on the 
mountain-sides, the islands of Capri and Ischia, the 
far-stretching sea, the city itself, with its half mil- 
lion population, its beautiful suburbs covered with 
vineyards, and Pompeii and Herculaneum beneath 
us, well repay us for all our trouble in ascending the 
mountain on this terribly hot day; nevertheless, we 
get a refreshing, cooling breeze from the sea. We 



2o8 Amioyances of Italian Travel. 

descend, plunging our feet and legs knee-deep into 
the debris at every step, like walking in cinders. 
When we get back to where our horses are stationed 
and pay our guide, he beseeches us in pitiful tones 
for more, although we had paid him well; and so 
he continues to follow us with others until, in order 
to get rid of them, we put our horses to full speed 
and escape. 

In regard to the annoyances which are sometimes 
encountered in Itahan travel, the experience of a 
Boston clergyman, whom we met at breakfast in 
Rome, may furnish our readers a vivid example. 
He was traveling by rail to Naples, having with 
him Cook's tickets, which entitled him to a seat in 
a second-class car. He was the only foreigner in 
the compartment, the companions around him being 
exceedingly rough and drunken Italians, so that he 
really feared robbery and assassination. At the first 
station he alighted and took a seat in a first-class 
carriage or car, intending, when the conductor came 
round, to pay the difference between the charges of 
the first and second class vehicles, the charge for 
the former being about a third higher than for the 
latter. When his ticket was called for, however, he 



Annoy a?ices of Italian Travel. 209 

was roughly compelled to pay full fare and give up 
his Cook's excursion tickets, covering the expenses 
of his route through Europe and his journey home, 
and then locked into the compartment. Failing to 
make any one understand a single word he uttered, 
he feared that he should lose his tickets, not even 
knowing the name of the station where the guard 
left him. On his arrival at Naples, through the 
assistance of the American Consul, and after great 
difficulty, he at length succeeded in recovering his 
tickets. His experience also with the guides in 
ascending Vesuvius was frightful. They succeeded 
in fleecing him out of twenty-five dollars, because 
he neglected to make his contract with them in 
advance, and every man who could get an oppor- 
tunity to assist him in any way compelled him to 
pay. He seemed to be glad that he had escaped 
with his life. It is not safe to undertake such a 
trip alone, and it is necessary always to make every 
contract in advance and to shake off every attempt 
to render you assistance except from your own 
proper guide, no matter from whom else it may be. 
An ItaHan railroad is slow enough in comparison 
with the roads in America and Great Britain. They 
14 



2IO Po7npeii. 

do not average more than twelve or fifteen miles 
an hour, and stop a long time at every station. It 
is amusing to see a number of officials inspect the 
carriages before starting and lock the doors, and 
then, if any one is missing, wait any length of time 
for him. Before starting they ring a little bell, then 
examine the coaches to see if all are aboard. Then 
the guard cries out " Go on ! " and finally some 
one on the engine blows a tin horn, very like the 
dinner-horn used by our farmers, and in a few 
minutes off we go. 

We had an intelligent guide who took us over 
Pompeii. It was built, according to history, about 
six hundred years before Christ. At the time of its 
destruction it was occupied by the Romans, and on 
the twenty-fourth day of August, A. D. 79, was 
swallowed up, as well as Herculaneum, by an erup- 
tion of Vesuvius. The terrible visitation lasted three 
days. Here Pliny the Elder lost his life, and his 
nephew, Pliny the Younger, gives a graphic account 
of the total catastrophe of the city's overthrow. 
Our guide informed us that a population of nearly 
half a million had formerly resided here; but he is 
evidently wrong, if we may judge from the size of 



Remains of the Ancient City. 211 

the city remaining, as well as from the idea gener- 
ally received that it was a place of but third-rate 
importance. The people were mostly at the theater, 
probably witnessing some grand gladiatorial show, 
when the storm of destruction fell upon them; and 
from the small number of skeletons excavated, it is 
supposed that most of the inhabitants made their 
escape. It is not many years since this wondrous 
city was to any great extent uncovered, with its 
regular streets, its buildings, public and private, its 
frescoed walls, its beautiful statuary and its numerous 
theaters and places of amusement, showing the 
devotion of its inhabitants to business, art and 
pleasure. The prevailing architecture was Greek. 
The private houses had only two floors, and were 
built nearly upon the same model, while the rooms 
were small and covered with profuse decoration. 
The streets are narrow, laid with flat paving-stones, 
and ruts w^orn in them by the chariot wheels, drawn 
by slaves, are plainly to be seen, as well as the worn 
stones put down at the crossings for pedestrians. 
The shops and houses were adorned with mosaics 
and with pictures. We walked through the streets 
until we were tired, looking at these quaint remains. 



212 Sunday in Naples. 

indicative of their ancient habits and customs. Now 
we read the inscriptions upon the walls and over the 
doors of their residences, nearly two thousand years 
buried in the earth. Sad is the story that many of 
them reveal, showing that prostitution was undoubt- 
edly barefaced and respectable in this luxurious and 
brilliant city, for signs by pictures and terribly 
vulgar devices over many a door on the main 
streets invited the inhabitants to enter these dens of 
infamy. Everything around us is curious, wonderful 
and ancient, and it may readily be seen that art 
held a high place among these people — pagans of 
the ancient world. 

Sunday, in Naples, in our hotel, situated close 
by the bay, with a fine old castle standing out 
in the water, making a lovely scene, was a period 
of rest which we were glad to enjoy, having 
just accomplished the hardest week's work of any 
since we left home; for it strains one's mind and 
nerves to behold so great a variety of scenes which 
awaken wonder and admiration. We are glad to 
turn our faces homeward. Our journey now is 
northward through Florence, Venice, Germany, Hol- 
land, etc., with the hope of being home early in 



Off for New Scenes. 



213 



September, or earlier if we can secure passage, 
which it is ahnost impossible to do except one 
engages return tickets, as we did, on the steamer by 
which we came over. 




XVI. 

FlorexNCE, the City of Palaces .... The Duomo and 
Campanile. . . .Art Collections at the Uffizi Palace 
. ..The Studio of Powers, .. ."The Bride of the 
Sea". . . .a Gondola Trip through Venice . . .Palace 
of the Doges, San Marco and Clock Tower. . . 
Piazza of St. Mark. . . .Evening Recreations. 

Venice, Italy. 

FROM Naples to Venice our road lay through 
the fig, almond and olive orchards and lovely 
vineyards, with vines gracefully festooned from tree 
to tree, showing the principal articles cultivated in 
Italy. At this time of year the ground looks parched 
and arid, and without tarrying long at any place 
we are glad to get farther north and stop at 
Florence, the " fairest city in the world." 

Florence, the old Tuscan capital, stands in the 
valley of the Arno, a river whose glories have been 



The City of Palaces. 215 

celebrated in many a poet's song, and whose scenes 
have been reproduced by many an artist's pencil. 
At this late season, the close of the summer months, 
it is a muddy, sluggish stream, about the size of 
our own Scioto. Crossing it are six bridges, and 
on the streets bordering its banks are located many 
of the best hotels and residences, and when shown 
to our rooms it was announced to us that we had 
a look-out upon the Arno. Florence is a city of 
churches, palaces, studios, etc., and to examine all 
the beautiful works of art w^ould make necessary a 
lengthened stay. The Duomo, or Cathedral, is the 
first object of interest that the traveler generally 
seeks. One is disappointed on first entering the 
edifice, for it is dark and gloomy as we come in 
from the exceedingly bright sunshine without; but 
we soon get accustomed to the scene, and enjoy 
the soft and tender beauty of the light streaming 
through the windows. The dome is said to be the 
widest in the world. When Michael Angelo was 
engaged upon the plan of St. Peter's and was told 
that he had now an opportunity of surpassing the 
dome of Florence, he replied : " I will make her 
sister dome larger, yes, — but not more beautiful." 



2i6 2^he Uffizi Gallery. 

After seeing St. Peter's one is not in a condition at 
once to look with much interest upon other cathe- 
drals, since he has already seen the greatest and 
noblest in the world. The exterior of the Florentine 
Duomo is composed of marbles of many colors, 
giving the building a rich and brilliant appearance 
under the midday sun. The bell-towers of Italy 
often stand by themselves apart from the churches, 
as does the famous campanile of this cathedral. 
The great artist Giotto, the " Shepherd- Boy of Fie- 
sole," was the architect, and it seems almost perfect, 
with its variegated marbles rising to the height of 
two hundred and ninety-three feet. Ruskin says: 
"This is the model and mirror of perfect archi- 
tecture"; and Longfellow, in his description of it, 
says : 

" In the old Tuscan town stands Giotto's tower, 
The lily of Florence, blossoming in stone, — 
A vision, a delight, and a desire, — 
The builder's perfect and centennial flower." 

We must not leave Florence without visiting the 
"Galleria degli Ufhzi," and see especially the fine 
groups of statuary having a world-wide celebrity. 



Studio of Powers. 217 

We had so often seen copies of the Venus di Medici, 
and heard it referred to as the most beautiful embodi- 
ment of female loveliness in the world, that it was a 
delight to examine and re-examine so masterly a 
rendering in marble of all that is pure and lovely 
in woman, — quite in contrast to the "Venus of the 
Capitol" in Rome, which has a robust and sensual 
appearance. This chef-d'oeuvre of art was brought 
from Tivoli, near Rome, to Florence, in 1680, and 
although much marred and broken, still retains its 
pre-eminence in the realm of art. The Apollino, 
the Wrestlers, the Grinder, the Dancing Faun, are all, 
I believe, productions of ancient art, and are won- 
derfully life-like. Here are sculptures and paintings 
by the foremost artists of all time — Raphael, Titian, 
Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci and others; 
but I do not pretend to an artistic training sufficient 
to pronounce upon their merits. We visited the 
studio of Powers, who, it will be remembered, was 
for some time a resident of Ohio (Cincinnati), and 
who for many years resided here in Florence, where 
he gained a reputation as the greatest of modern 
sculptors. His wife still maintains the studio, where 
she Hves, just outside the city gates. During our 



2i8 The Sculptor'' s Family. 

call there, his oldest son, a native of Cincinnati, 
kindly showed us the sculptures of his father, — the 
"Greek Slave," etc. Mr. Powers left three sons and 
three daughters, who are still living in Florence. 
The sons, I believe, have all somewhat of their 
father's genius, and models were shown us, now in 
process of development, as well as works of merit 
already completed by them. One of the daughters, 
also, is an artist. One of the sons has a photo- 
graphic establishment near by, in which he makes a 
specialty of photographing his father's works. He 
also produces photographic views about Florence, 
and few cities in the world have so picturesque and 
grand a location, spreading out as it does through 
its environs upon surrounding hills, where are seen 
beautiful villas on the ways leading toward Vallom-- 
brosa and in other directions. We obtained a 
splendid evening view of the city from the Towner 
of Galileo, where we see the villa in which he spent 
the closing years of his life, and where he was visited 
by Milton. Americans, it is said, are fast taking pos- 
session of Florence, and they claim that they can live 
much more cheaply here than in the United States ; 
but how any one, without some other reason than 



Venice. 219 

this, can expatriate himself from his country and 
friends, I cannot understand. 

We know that we are approaching Venice, the 
"Bride of the Sea," as we come in sight of and 
cross the lagoons, the most famous in Europe. 
Venice is a city of islands. Of these there are no 
less than one hundred and seventeen, united by 
nearly four hundred bridges. As we arrive at the 
depot we are met by the gondoHers of the different 
hotels, and at once get seated in one of their black, 
graceful conveyances, where new scenes and sights 
meet us on every hand. Every few moments we 
think we are going to be run into by gondolas 
coming from every direction, often with only one 
oarsman with his one solitary oar, which he plies 
upon one side only of his boat; but we soon gain 
confidence, as our gondolier turns the sharp corners, 
just missing the wall or the prow of some on-coming 
neighbor, and, as he plies his one loose oar with 
wonderful dexterity, calling out in his musical 
Italian, " Gia e^gih e !'' (Boat ahead — boat ahead!) 
Canals take the place of streets, and the gondola 
is the only vehicle that runs upon these watery 
avenues. Neither horse nor carriage of any kind 



2 20 Ve7iice. 

is in Venice, which now contains one hundred and 
thirty thousand inhabitants, although in the fif- 
teenth century, when it was the focus of the entire 
commerce of Europe, its population numbered two 
hundred thousand. The palaces and business houses 
front on the canals, and run back to a little narrow 
foot-walk, from five to six feet wide, and all the 
carrying business is done in gondolas; indeed, it is 
almost impossible to get about the city in any other 
way. We meet the business man reading his paper, 
the market-man with his load of fish and vegetables, 
and the various bustle and stir of the city, and 
finally alight at our hotel. We find its marble steps 
partly covered with water, and our rooms overlooking 
the Grand Canal, which is the main artery of the 
city and nearly two miles long. There are one 
hundred and forty-seven canals (or streets) in all. 
The Adriatic Sea gleams in the distance ; and, nearer 
at hand, the Lido and other islands, whence come 
the fresh vegetables for the market, for there are 
no gardens or green shrubs in Venice. The houses 
are all built by driving down substantial piles under 
the entire building, and in time the foundations 
become petrified and as solid as stone. 





•iiill?Si:j'^.--'iiiiiiiilii3ili 



A Go7idola Ride. 221 

We undertake a voyage through Venice. As it is 
impossible to walk to the bank to get our letters, 
we find it necessary to hire for the day a gondolier, 
for whose services we pay one dollar and thirty 
cents. We land at the steps of the bank, and float 
all day from place to place in these luxurious boats, 
restful and easy, and, refreshed by a delightful sea- 
breeze, quite in contrast with the hot, dry air of 
southern Italy, we enjoy it with a zeal unequaled 
since we left home. We meet in the afternoon and 
evening the private gondolas, handsomely fitted up, 
filled with families taking their daily airing, or the 
lady alone making her calls and arranging her toilet 
at her mirror before alighting at her neighbor's door ; 
and at moonUght the lovers, blissful and alone, 
enjoying the cool breeze away from the eyes of 
the jealous ones — conducive, I should think, to 
quick engagements. We visit at evening one of the 
islands, and return by the long range of hotels and 
palaces fronting the sea, affording one of the most 
splendid views in the world. Queen Marguerite 
had just alighted at the king's palace, and the 
handsome gondoliers were happy in being, as they 
thought, so highly honored as to be employed by 



222 The Bridge of Sighs. 

the royal family. The new king, Humbert, and his 
handsome queen seem to be adored by the people. 
He has a sober, solemn face, without marked 
features. We visited the wonderful Palace of the 
Doges, founded in the year 800, and then the 
historic halls — that of the Grand Council, the Hall 
of Elections, the Hall of the Senate, etc., etc., 
adorned with the choicest paintings, and cross the 
" Bridge of Sighs," to which so much interest is 
attached through the exquisite lines of Byron : 

"I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, — 
A palace and a prison on each hand." 

We see in the Sala delle Scudo, or " Hall of the 
Shield," a "map of the world by Fra Mauro," 
made in 1457 (with the American Continent left 
out) — the greatest curiosity of its kind in the world. 
Also we see Titian's famous picture, " The Assump- 
tion," and so many old monuments, sculptures, 
paintings, etc., etc., that one wearies at the very 
thought of remembering a one-thousandth part of 
them. 

The old Church of San Marco, with its five 
domes, is wonderful, the interior looking as if it were 



The Clock Tower. 223 

a " vast cave hewn out into the form of a cross, 
and divided into shadowy aisles by many pillars." 
The floors are of marble, and are so worn and 
uneven as to be difficult to walk over. They claim 
that the body of St. Mark the EvangeHst rests 
here, brought from Alexandria. Whether true or not, 
he is the patron saint of Venice, and the present 
magnificent edifice owes its origin to the advent of 
the sacred relics. We ascended the Campanile, 
three hundred and four feet in height, by means 
of a winding inclined plane, and from the summit 
enjoyed a commanding view of the city, the sea 
and the Italian Alps. At two o'clock we visited the 
Clock Towner in the piazza of St. Mark, to witness 
the feeding of the pigeons. On the platform in 
front stand two Vulcans in bronze, who strike the 
hours on bells, when immediately a large flock of 
pigeons fly down, daily at this hour, to be fed at 
the expense of the city. According to tradition, 
Admiral Enrico Dandolo, while besieging Candia, 
at the beginning of the thirteenth century, received 
inteUigence from the island, by means of carrier- 
pigeons, which greatly faciHtated its conquest. He 
then dispatched the birds to Venice with the news 



2 24 Piazza of St. Mark. 

of his success, and since that period they have been 
carefully tended and highly revered by the citizens. 
No one injures or frightens them, and they are 
tame and happy about this busy square when being 
fed. 

In the evening we groped our way from the 
rear of our hotel through the narrow walks to the 
piazza of St. Mark, the central place of attraction 
when the military bands play. We found thousands 
of the Venetians of all classes, from the prince to 
the beggar, enjoying the fresh air and sauntering up 
and down, while some were indulging in refresh- 
ments in front of the cafes. ■ Many of the ladies 
were beautifully dressed, and were both graceful 
and handsome. It was an animated scene — the 
Procuratie, St. Mark's, the Palace of the Doges, the 
Piazzetta, and the lagoons by moonlight, together 
with the crowds of people, the brilliant lights, and 
over all the splendid Italian sky. The piazza is 
rectangular, ninety yards in breadth by one hundred 
and ninety-two in length, and paved with blocks of 
trachyte and marble, and on three sides inclosed 
by splendid marble palaces, blackened through age 
and long exposure to the weather. The stores and 



Evefii?tor Rea-eations. 



225 



shop-windows are full of diamonds, rich jewelry and 
pictures, and we obtain a realizing sense of the 
dazzling gayety of Venetian life. The people of 
Naples, Rome and Venice, and, indeed, all over 
the Continent, seem to be bent on enjoying them- 
selves, and are ever out of doors in the cool of the 
evening, in great crowds, around the cafes^ parks 
and places of amusement. In Naples, on Sunday 
evenings, the streets and public squares are bril- 
liantly hghted, giving the city the appearance of 
some grand illumination. 




XVII. 



The Old Amphitheater at Verona .... Departure from 
Italy. . . .Trent. . . .German Homelikeness . . . .Munich 

The Pinakothek. . . .Famous Americans in Bronze 

The Great Breweries. . . . Use of Stimulants 

A Novel Species of Morgue .... Famous Cemeteries 
OF Europe. . . .Heidelberg and its Students. 

Heidelberg, Germany. 

WE have now been about eight hundred miles 
through Italy, down by the eastern and 
returning by the middle-western side, via Verona, to 
Germany, and everywhere have been greatly inter- 
ested. Italy is overflowing with objects of interest, 
historical and artistic, and if with "united Italy" 
comes, as there should, a stable government, with its 
consequent prosperity, this historic peninsula must 
again become a power in the world. We have 
found throughout splendid hotels, with reasonable 



Verona. 227 

charges. They have invariably marble floors and 
stairs — no carpets — and the rooms are often ele- 
gantly furnished. Here we found, for the first time 
in Europe, plenty of fruit — grapes, figs, peaches, 
plums and apples — cheaper than in Ohio. The 
fall and spring would be much more delightful 
seasons to visit Italy than July, August or Septem- 
ber; but we have enjoyed the sights and scenes, so 
new to us, exceedingly, and take our leave of them 
after a visit to Verona, the second of the quadri- 
lateral cities, heavily fortified and near the Austrian 
frontier. The great curiosity in this place is the 
Roman Amphitheater, in so much better preserva- 
tion than the CoHseum at Rome. It was probably 
built under Diocletian, about A. D. 284, and it is 
said to have seated over twenty thousand spectators 
and to have been capable of holding seventy thou- 
sand. Every row of seats is still unbroken, although 
the building was erected in the third century. Now- 
adays in its corridors various trades are being car- 
ried on, such as blacksmithing, wagon-making, etc., 
a pleasing contrast, in peaceful industry, to the 
wild and turbulent scenes once witnessed in these 
ancient passages; whilst above and below ground 



228 ^^ Romeo afid Juliet.^' 

are winding ways, bringing vividly to mind the 
thousands hurrying in and out, intent upon the 
bloody spectacles of the arena. During our visit 
there, a theatrical troupe was performing (perhaps 
" Romeo and Juliet ") in a frame theater built 
within the walls, from the tops of which we could 
see the actors, but could not hear the play. The 
prima donna, as advertised on the bills, was Cath- 
arina Howard (we wondered if Italian theatrical 
stars in Italy assume English names, as ours 
so often assume Italian ones in America). In 
Verona, it will be remembered, are laid most of 
the scenes of Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juhet " 
(the chief incidents of which were of actual occur- 
rence), as well as the scenes of the "Two Gen- 
tlemen of Verona," and various other plays and 
romances by other authors. JuHet's tomb is pointed 
out in the Garden of the Orfanotrofio, "notable 
as being the lady so immortalized first by Da 
Porto in the novel, and afterward and so unap- 
proachably by Shakespeare." We notice a great 
many soldiers around the city and public squares, and 
learn that there is a garrison of six thousand men 
at the base of the Alps. The city contains a popu- 



Leaving Italy. 229 

lation of sixty thousand, but looks poverty-stricken 
and dilapidated, though heavily fortified, while large 
forts are to be seen all around on the neighboring 
hills. 

We now leave Italy and enter Austria at Ala, 
where all are marched out of the cars to have their 
baggage examined. We pass the city of Trent, 
specially celebrated as the scene of the sessions of 
the "Great Council of Trent" in 1545-63, and 
continue our journey through the wild valley of the 
Eisack, with noble fortifications and ancient castles 
on every hand. We ascend the Alps through the 
Brenner Pass. The tunnels are very numerous, and 
the curves and precipices so bold and fearful as 
almost to make one shudder. At Innspruck the 
scenery of the valley becomes very grand. Our 
baggage is again examined at Sterzing, where we 
cross over the frontier into Germany, and it seems 
as if we were again in " God's country," among our 
friends, as we see the strong, broad, German faces, 
and hear the German language everywhere spoken. 
We have so many Germans in Columbus among 
our best citizens that we are greatly interested in 
their native country, and with the sprinkling of 



230 



Munich. 



German words at our command can manage to talk 
enough to be understood. Coming from the heated 
air and dry and parched plains and uplands of Italy 
to the green fields and salubrious climate of Ger- 
many is exhilarating in the extreme, and we enjoy 
the wide meadows, splendid farm-houses and sub- 
stantial appearance of everything. Wherever the 
railroad crosses a turnpike, a beam (painted blue 
and white like a barber's pole) is stretched across 
the highway and carefully closed whenever a train 
approaches. 

Munich challenges all the other capitals of Europe 
for beauty, and rivals Paris or Rome as a repository 
of art. We ride and walk about the splendid old 
city of over two hundred thousand inhabitants^ with 
its beautiful public and private buildings, numerous 
parks and clean streets, which MaximiHan I., Louis 
I. and Louis II. did so much to build up and 
foster, and furnish with the finest productions of art 
and science. The celebrated Munich bronze foundry 
and stained-glass manufactory are located here, and 
our intelligent old guide, proud of his native city, 
showed us the picture-galleries of the royal palaces, 
old and new (the royal palaces in Bavaria are 



The Pinakothek, 231 

called residences), and the old and new Pinakothek 
(gallery of pictures). The latter was specially- 
interesting, as the paintings were all productions of 
modern artists, and I was anxious to see something 
besides the works of the old masters, of which we 
have seen so much in Rome, Florence and Venice. 
In one of the rooms the guide took great interest 
in showing us the likenesses of King Louis, his 
wife and ten children. This king seems to be 
exceedingly popular with the Bavarians, while they 
chafe under the present rule and look forward for a 
day of deliverance. Now they have to help support 
the German government, and pay also a large 
amount to keep up the royal household of Louis. 

At the bronze foundry are the original models 
for the statues of many distinguished Americans. 
The guide pointed out to me a model, saying, with 
emphasis, " This is General Washington ; next that is 
— what you call him? — oh. President Lincoln, the 
black manr There were also models of Webster, 
Marshall, Clay, Benton, Grant, Peabody and many 
other of our great men, and one feels proud of the 
appearance of American statesmen, etc., at the side 
of those of other nations. The proprietor of the 



232 The Bronze Foundry. 

foundry informed me that they had more orders for 
the statue of Lincoln than for any other. Statues 
of Humboldt and Shakespeare were being molded 
while we were there — an order from St. Louis. 
Americans are the best patrons. They speak proudly 
of the Tyler Davidson fountain, cast here, as being 
one of the finest in the world. This fountain is a 
gift from Mr. Henry Probasco, a citizen of Cin- 
cinnati,^ to the people of that place. The cost 
amounted to one hundred and seventy-five thousand 
dollars, and the bronze work weighs twenty-four 
tons. Forty-five tons of porphyry rest solidly on 
the bottom of the basin, and its rim contains forty 
tons of the same beautifiil material. All this was 
quarried and dressed in the Kingdom of Saxony, 
and shipped to this country unmarred by break or 
scratch. This fountain constitutes the art feature 
of Cincinnati, perhaps even of the western world, 
and will well repay, to art lovers desirous of seeing 
it, the trouble even of a long and tedious journey. 
When it was first put up on the grounds of the 
foundry, over four thousand inhabitants of Munich 
were present to see it play. 

But we must not leave Munich without seeing 



Great Bfrwerles. 233 

the great breweries, beer-houses and beer-gardens. 
Of the former there are fifteen or twenty large 
ones and about the same number of smaller ones. 
Some of them cover five or six acres, and the great 
beer-cellars underground, hewn out in some rocky 
eminence, with their one hundred thousand barrels 
of beer, give one an idea of its daily consumption 
in this city. We pass the " Bavaria Keller," one of 
the most frequented, on an eminence overlooking 
the large race-course and park, and a splendid 
panorama of the mountains and surrounding country, 
where thousands assemble on pleasant evenings — 
all classes, men, women and children, bringing their 
cheese, ham, sausages and bread with them, and 
enjoying the refreshing draught of lager, with a 
band of music playing. We went into the Hof- 
brauhaus (King's Brewery), crowded with men and 
women, drinking and chatting and making a bedlam 
equal to the Bourse in Paris or the Gold Room in 
New York. Women and girls were coming and 
going, crowding their way along among the men 
with their mugs and their wire casters, holding from 
three to six glasses of the foaming beverage. The 
guide asked me to take a glass of beer. I declined. 



k 



234 Use of Stmiulants. 

He continued : " I don't want any now ; I always 
prepare myself by eating something before drink- 
ing." He says that everybody in Germany, men, 
women and children, drink beer and wine, and 
that sometimes one establishment has the run of 
custom, and then, if they do not keep up to the 
standard of good beer, and somebody else makes 
better, all rush off to their new favorite. Every- 
where in Europe the exception is not to drink at 
table, and waiters would hand us the wine list and 
ask us, "What will you have?" "Nothing." Then 
they would say : " No beer, no wine ? " In Great 
Britain people drink brown stout and ale ; in France, 
wine and absinthe; in Switzerland and Italy, wine; 
in Germany, beer and wine. An American gentle- 
man was invited to dine with a distinguished pro- 
fessor of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, and 
he asked the professor, " Don't you have water on 
your table?" "Why, no; I never drank water in 
my life." 

At the beautiful cemetery (Gottesacker) a novel 
sight was presented. Inside the grounds stood a 
large building, with marble floors, and arches sup- 
ported by columns, divided into three spacious 



Famous Cemeteiies. 



235 



rooms, fronted with large panes of glass, all of them 
facing the inside of a quadrangle. In front of these 
windows, and in full view of the visitors, lay the 
dead, covered with flowers. The rooms are divided 
into first, second, and third class departments 
(the former being a large one), according to the 
standing and wealth of the deceased. When any 
one dies in Munich they are taken at once in a 
carriage to one of these rooms, without being 
accompanied by their friends, who afterward follow 
and decorate the body with flowers. In some of the 
rooms, candles were burning by the dead. In one 
room alone were children of all ages. Their faces 
looked like marble in their beautiful repose, decked as 
they were with lovely flowers. In the third-class room 
there were bodies without any floral decoration. 
No doubt their families were too poor to bear the 
expense. The bodies must remain in these rooms 
for the space of forty-eight hours. A fine wire is 
attached to the forefinger of each body, and goes 
to a room near by, where bells, which are numbered, 
are attached to the separate wires, while watchers 
are continually present. The slightest motion from 
any body exposed, so delicate are these wires, would 



236 Famous Cemeteries. 

instantly ring a bell, so that if a bell strikes the 
watchers know that there has been a movement in 
some body in the adjoining room, and they run at 
once to see if any person lying there is still alive, 
and to apply the proper remedies for their resuscita- 
tion. After the forty-eight hours have expired, notice 
is given in the public papers, and friends come and 
place the body in a tomb or in the ground; but to 
have a dear friend's body thus exposed to the 
common gaze appears to me extremely repulsive. 
It reminds one too much of the morgue in Paris, 
where the suicides are exposed to view, with all 
their clothes and a description of the body hung up at 
the window, that friends may come and claim them. 
Perhaps one of the most lovely tributes which we 
pay to departed friends is the decoration of our 
cemeteries. Throughout our land they blossom and 
bloom, — fields of consolation, God's acres, indeed; 
but in Europe they are often of a different descrip- 
tion — gorgeous and magnificent, perhaps, in sepul- 
chral decoration, but lacking that tender solicitude 
and care, that sweet home feeling embracing the 
very dead, which are characteristic of our lovely 
cemeteries at home. Near the barriers of Paris lies 



Famous Cemeteries. 237 

one, crowded and gloomy, but with a world-wide 
fame — Pere la Chaise. It is situated on the highest 
point within the city limits, completely covered with 
dark, dismal tombs, with narrow walks winding 
around them, reminding one of the Catacombs. 
Hung upon the tombs are wreaths of immortelles 
or of bead-work, and, allowed to remain until 
blackened and decayed, they present a sad and 
forbidding sight. The Campo Santo in Genoa, on 
the contrary, is one of the most beautiful cemeteries 
of its peculiar style I ever saw. Its whole arrange- 
ment is unique and interesting. It contains some 
ten acres of ground, surrounded by a rotunda, with 
marble floor and columns over the vaults. In the 
rear of this rotunda are niches for marble statuary, 
and when any person has died who is to be here 
interred, beautiful marble sculpture, either in the 
bust or the full form, is placed in these niches — 
sometimes erect and sometimes in a reclining position, 
as when laid in the tomb. There is also an internal 
gallery, and the whole building in the upper tier is 
supported by monolithic columns of black marble, 
and no expense seems to have been spared in 
making this cemetery the most costly of any in the 



238 Heidelberg. 

world, and, as we have above said, entirely unique. 
Pisa also contains a famous Campo Santo. It was 
founded in 1188, and has three chapels attached to 
it. The walls are covered with frescoes by artists 
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and it is 
wonderful for the age in which it was built. In 
Pompeii the old burial-place is still to be seen, and, 
singularly enough, it contains tombstones much like 
those in our own beautiful Green Lawn. In Rome, 
besides the catacombs and tombs everywhere en- 
countered among the ruins, are also large tombs or 
excavations in the ground, over which stand stone 
buildings, with vases placed in niches in the wall 
(around a stone rotunda), with the Roman name 
upon the vases, which contain the ashes of the 
dead, showing that cremation is no new thing. 
The English Cemetery in Rome is beautifully laid 
out, according to modern style. Here He the 
mortal remains of Keats and Shelley: 

"And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time 
Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand." 

Heidelberg, where we now are, is a splendid city, 
with its very old university, its far older castle, and 



German Shidejits. 239 

its most picturesque surroundings. We see the 
German students here, with their robust forms and 
intellectual faces, and it is noticeable that so many 
of them, old and young, wear glasses, that we 
came to the conclusion that it must be a popular 
custom, as indicating the student and scholar. 
An EngHsh student whom I met here said to me, 
" Do you notice the cuts on the faces of the young 
men ? Every little while, to settle some difficulty, 
they go out with their friends and take it out with 
short swords." He said, moreover, that they were 
inveterate beer-drinkers, and would take from ten 
to twenty glasses in an evening, and that he could 
not bear to have them come to his room, they 
were so personally offensive through the combined 
odors of beer and tobacco-smoke. 



XVIII. 

Degradation of the Female Peasantry on the Conti- 
nent A Sunday in Heidelberg ... The Old 

Castle and the University. .. .A Land of Plenty 

Frankfort-on-the-Main The Judengasse 

Antiquities of the City Down the Rhine 

Cologne and its Cathedral Thoughts upon Art. 

Paris, France. 

THE women on the Continent seem to have a 
hard time — I mean the lower class. In Switz- 
erland we saw them drawing heavy loads and 
carrying on their backs, up the mountain-steeps, 
deep, burdensome baskets, and even harnessed with 
a cow to a cart. In one instance a cow and a man 
on the one side, and a woman on the other, were 
drawing a load. The cow having become frightened 
at the railroad train, they were in danger of being 
run away with, and were holding on to her horns. 



Sunday in Heidelberg. 241 

In Munich, women were the hod-carriers, bearing 
great loads of mortar and brick wherever building 
was going on, and in Heidelberg they were carrying 
long, heavy bars of iron on their shoulders. With 
us the iron would have been carried on drays. All 
women and children appear to drink wine and beer 
as freely as the men, and have their glasses of wine 
at the hotels; but nowhere on the Continent do 
we remember to have seen a person drunk or quar- 
relsome. 

At Heidelberg we attended worship at the old 
Church of the Holy Ghost, whither we were directed 
to go, under the information that we should there 
find service conducted by the Presbyterian Church 
of Scotland; but unexpectedly found ourselves in a 
Roman Catholic church. We thought that we had 
not been understood in our inquiry, and were next 
pointed in another direction, where Church of Eng- 
land service was held. On our way we met a good 
old Scotch Presbyterian family from our hotel, and 
thinking that they were going to church, followed 
them, and, to our surprise, they entered the same 
church we had previously found occupied by the 
Roman Catholics, and here we discovered the Scotch 
16 



242 The Old Castle and the University. 

minister, perched up in a little pulpit far away from 
his audience, which consisted of about twenty wor- 
shipers. I found this old church had the odd pecul- 
iarity of being partitioned through the center, so 
that the Romanists held service at one end, and at 
the same time the Protestants at the other. I had 
at first entered the wrong division. Heidelberg is a 
Protestant city, and the Lutherans here have splen- 
did, capacious churches, and large audiences on 
Sabbath mornings; although, as I walked the main 
street, I noticed that stores and banks were open, 
and the general appearance was rather like some 
holiday, as the people were loitering about and well- 
dressed. The old Church of St. Peter, where Jerome 
of Prague, the reformer, hurled his defiance to the 
Papacy, is still standing. 

The grand old castle of Heidelberg, fulfiUing my 
preconceived ideas of a castle, is situated " high on 
the forehead of Jettenbiihl," with mountains behind 
and in front. From the broad terrace of masonry 
you can almost throw a stone upon the roofs of the 
town, so closely do they lie below this massive, half- 
ruined structure, with its octagon and its round and 
square towers, battered and shattered by the mace 




■I 



'5 



-i 



1 



A Land of Plefity. 243 

of war. It is said to be the most magnificent ruin 
of the Middle Ages. The University, with its cele- 
brated schools of law and medicine, whose profes- 
sional chairs have been adorned by many noted 
scholars, and where some of our own young Amer- 
icans have studied, is a building plain and unpre- 
tentious. The students are divided into five different 
corps, distinguished by the color of their caps — 
Prussian, white; Rhinelander, blue; etc. 

All the way from Heidelberg to Frankfort (indeed, 
wherever we have been in Germany), like the land 
of Canaan, the country seems to flow with milk and 
honey — a land of corn and wine, of beautiful fields 
and steep slopes, terraced and green with vineyards. 
So precipitous and rugged are the hill-sides that 
oftentimes it seems almost impossible to ascend 
them. The country does not produce the olive, but 
large quantities of oil are procured from the walnut, 
the poppy, and from rape-seed. There are no fences 
or hedges to their fields. The ox and the heifer 
are yoked together, and whole families, without 
regard to sex, are seen busy gathering the wheat 
and barley and cultivating the vineyards. 

Frankfort-on-the-Main is a great commercial city, 



244 Frankfort-on-the-Mam. 

and looks, as you approach it, like a splendid capi- 
tal; and as one rides through the beautiful streets, 
it is noticeable that all the houses are of a neutral 
tint. We asked Captain Lee, our efficient, gentle- 
manly American Consul (once of the Ohio State 
Journal)^ to whom we are indebted for valuable 
attentions, what was the meaning of it. He replied : 
" It is a part of the municipal law of the city that 
all houses must have only the neutral colors." The 
different colors were like the stone of Chittenden's 
block (corner of High and Spring streets, Colum- 
bus), and gave the thoroughfares of the city a neat 
and unusual appearance, reminding us, also, of the 
cream-colored stone fronts of Paris. Before the 
Exposition, Paris passed a law requiring all house- 
owners to clean off the fronts of their houses, which 
well accounts for the fresh, tidy look of all the streets ; 
and there is a municipal law requiring this to be 
done throughout the city every seven years. Frank- 
fort is one of the great money centers of the world, 
and was the first foreign city to take our Government 
bonds, of which it now holds one hundred millions. 
After the passage of the Silver Bill, many of the 
smaller bond-holders here returned them to the United 



The Judengasse. 245 

States, and now are chagrined and astonished that 
they were taken up so readily by our own people. 
All the banks, including that of the Rothschilds, are 
plain-looking buildings with iron gratings at the win- 
dows, giving them the appearance of jails. 

In the Judengasse, or Jews' Alley, Rothschild's 
first banking-room was shown us. It is about eight 
feet by ten, without a window — only a door; and 
over this entrance now were a few old boots hung 
up for sale. From 1460 until within a few years, 
all the Jews were compelled to reside here, and the 
thoroughfare was closed by gates at each end all 
night and on Sundays and holidays. These old, 
dingy, antiquated houses have beheld many a dark 
scene of Jewish persecution and suffering. Now, 
many of this once oppressed and downtrodden people 
live in the most splendid palaces and mansions in 
the city, and we hope that the days of Jewish per- 
secution throughout the world are over. 

We stop to look at the old, slate-covered house 
called " Lutherhaus," where Luther preached from 
the balcony when on his way to Worms. It bears 
his portrait and the inscription, " /;/ silentio et spe 
erit fortitiido vestraP The Romer, or Town Hall, is 



246 Antiquities^ Etc. 

an antiquated-looking building with three gables. In 
the hall of this building are the frescoed portraits 
of the emperors of Germany, and within the edifice 
twenty-four emperors, counting from the first, have 
been crowned. Goethe seems to be the god which 
the Frankforters worship, and the house where he 
was born, in 1749, has this inscription: "In Diesem 
Hause wurde Johann Wolfgang Goethe, am 28 
August, 1749, Geboren." For two miles we rode 
through and around beautiful parks in the. center of 
the city. Captain Lee lives on one of the best 
streets, in the vicinity of other consuls, but in plain, 
republican simplicity, quite in contrast with their 
splendid residences. His family speak German flu- 
ently, and we hope he will not turn " Dutchman," 
but re-turn to the Ohio State Journal again. Ever 
since we have crossed the Alps, and also on the 
Alps at Innspruck, we have met rain. We have had 
occasional showers almost every day, though v/e had 
not seen rain in Italy for a month, and Captain Lee 
informed us that it rains almost daily here, more or 
less, throughout the season. 

We have promise of a beautiful day at Mayence 
for our trip down the Rhine, and with great antici- 



Down the Rhine. 247 

pations we take the steamer for Cologne and pro- 
ceed on our way, with the bridge of boats connecting 
Mayence and Cassel in full view above us. Gliding 
between the islands and passing many towns and 
villas, we soon come to the hill-sides, terraced witii 
green vineyards, where, perched on the top of some 
rock or steep hill, are seen the old castles, some in 
ruins and others restored and inhabited. To each 
one appertains some interesting legend, which is 
entertaining to read as we sweep along so coolly and 
dehghtfully, after our diversified and somewhat toil- 
some trip through Italy. On a rocky island in the 
midst of the river stands the Mausethurm, or Mouse 
Tower. A strange legend, which has been versified 
by Southey, connects the tower with a certain Bishop 
Hatto, who, for hoarding corn which the starving 
people needed, and burning in a barn a number of 
them who complained, was devoured in this tower, 
whither he had taken refuge, by an army of mice. 
Every little while, in a turn of the river, some grand 
old castle meets our view, and all day long we are 
kept on the lookout for new scenes and the fresh 
interest excited by the legends connected with them. 
I was disappointed in the Rhine scenery, and, were 



248 Cathedral at Colog7te. 

it not for the unusual sight of so many old castles 
(I think I counted some twenty-five in number) and 
the legends with which this stream is thronged, it 
would be found less interesting than the Hudson, 
which far surpasses it in picturesque beauty. It pos- 
sesses nothing to compare with the scenery at West 
Point and many other places on our American river, 
— not even in the far-famed rocks of the Lurlei. 
The towns and villas are not so beautiful, and were 
it not for the vineyards on the hill-sides, terraced and 
green, the river banks would present but a barren 
appearance. It is said that in some places the soil 
is deposited on these precipitous hill-sides by manual 
labor, and ranged in terraces built on the face of the 
rock, and which are so difficult of access that to 
reach them much risk is incurred by the laborers of 
both sexes. It pays well, however, to cultivate the 
grape here, on account of the fame of the Rhenish 
wines all over the world. 

The Cathedral at Cologne is one of the most 
famous in the world, and by walking around its 
exterior and viewing it from different standpoints one 
gets an idea of the magnificence of the whole and 
the exquisite beauty of some of the details. The 



Thoughts upon Art. 249 

interior, with its grand forest of columns, as you 
gaze down the aisle with its massive pillars for four 
hundred feet, is wonderfully grand. The two towers 
are not yet finished; the work is still in progress, 
and, when completed, this cathedral will be among 
the highest and most perfect in proportions and 
beauty of any in existence. Though, to my mind, 
St. Peter's, at Rome, seems as perfect in its archi- 
tectural proportions as any monument of art can be. 
As you stand at the foot of Mont Blanc, in Switz- 
erland, or on Inspiration Point, in California, com- 
manding a view of the Yosemite, you realize some- 
thing of God's majesty and power ; so, as you walk 
through St. Peter's, in Rome, you feel that this is the 
grandest work of art that man has ever produced, 
and that Michael Angelo, the builder of its dome, 
was a wonder of God's power, as developed in his 
great versatility and astonishing genius. 

We saw in Venice the first painting of Titian, 
when at the age of twelve, and his last, in his one 
hundredth year. The latter was not finished at his 
death. The Milan Cathedral is the most beautiful 
and elaborate of all we have seen, with its forest 
of turrets and thousands of statues in the niches and 



250 Thoughts upon Art. 

on pedestals, decorating its whole exterior. When the 
two towers of the Cologne Cathedral are finished, it will 
take its rank as third in reputation in the world. 
We have seen the most famous paintings in Europe. 
The best known of all is the " Cenacolo," or " Last 
Supper," by Leonardo da Vinci, the painter, sculpt- 
or, musician, mathematician and man of science, 
in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan. 
The picture is twenty-eight feet in length, and no 
other work is so often praised and so often copied. 
This greatest of all paintings is on the damp wall of 
the old refectory, and is now almost obliterated. The 
artist was many years painting it. I never thought 
that the expression given to Our Saviour by most 
of the great painters could be anything like the 
original, according to my conception of his character. 
Most of them have given him a sad and feminine 
look, with regularly formed and small features, instead 
of making his countenance the index of the strong 
character appropriate to the greatest and godliest of 
men; and from what we learn of the private 
characteristics of some of these painters of Christ, 
the Madonnas, the Assumption, Crucifixion, Im- 
maculate Conception, etc., we should judge that 



Cologne, 251 

they could not have been greatly capable of con- 
ceiving his true character, or of an inspiration to 
do justice to the delineation of Him who was the 
greatest among ten thousand and altogether lovely. 
Cologne is a large city, of one hundred and fifty 
thousand inhabitants, — the largest in the Rhenish 
province of Prussia. The expulsion of the Jews 
and other events in the fifteenth century, when it 
was almost unexampled in prosperity, caused it to 
decline; but now its numerous shops and covered 
arcades indicate that it is once more in a flourish- 
ing condition. The peculiar manufacture of this 
city is eau de Cologne, and we visited the most 
noted establishment — that of Jean Marie Farina 
— and purchased a box of it as a souvenir of the 
city; but I fear, judging from the number of times I 
shall have to pay duty while passing through Ger- 
many, that it will prove a dear investment before 
I get home. Throughout the Continent, custom- 
house officers are stationed at the different approaches 
to almost every town, who step up to your carriage 
in order to see if you have anything contraband. 
Each city seems to have some special article which 
they wish to prohibit. In Paris wine or spirits is 



252 Cologne. 

the principal commodity looked for, and the duty 
upon it yields an immense sum — so much that it 
is difficult to get a pure article, the adulteration is 
so very great. 



9S»§^^«»«»»»^iBI 



XIX. 

Amsterdam: its External Features, Industries, Gal- 
leries OF Art and Banking Houses .... Haarlem and 
ITS Flower Gardens .... Leyden and the " Pilgrim 
Fathers " . . . . Royal Marriage Fete at The Hague 
....Antwerp: its Cathedral and Art Treasures 
.... Brussels : its Hotel de Ville, Lace-makers and 
Milk Carriers . . . Return to Paris .... Our Repre- 
sentatives Abroad. 

Amsterdam, Holland. 

AS we approach Amsterdam the country appears 
flat and marshy. We see the windmills in 
every direction, and regale our eyes on old-fashioned 
Dutch houses and numerous canals, and finally on 
the city itself, which in some respects is one of the 
most interesting on the globe. It is built on wooden 
piles. All through the city you cross the canals, 
bordering which are many of the principal streets, 

253 



254 Amsterdam. 

with long rows of shade-trees and clean, paved 
roadways on either side; the canals intersecting the 
city streets being so numerous as to form ninety 
islands, with two hundred and ninety bridges cross- 
ing them in different directions. Amsterdam has a 
population of about three hundred thousand, and is, 
like Frankfort, a great city for discounting and bill- 
broking, there being immense wealth among the 
Jews and many other of its inhabitants. Its style 
of architecture is very singular, and often strikes the 
stranger as angular, stiff and tasteless, the houses 
being constructed with curiously caryed gables, which 
are made to front universally upon the streets. 

One of the principal industries of the city is 
diamond-cutting, and it commands the diamond 
trade of the world. We visited M. Koster's diamond- 
cutting and polishing establishment, where four 
hundred workmen are employed in this, to us, 
interesting business. Some of the finest diamonds 
are obtained from the Cape of Good Hope. The 
famous Koh-i-noor was polished here, and it would 
do our ladies good to look at the little pile of 
diamonds which the proprietor kindly called us to 
examine. 



Art and Industries. 



255 



Amsterdam has an academy of painting, sculpt- 
ure, engraving and architecture. As regards the 
intellectual pursuits of its inhabitants, it is said, 
" No city of its size and population abounds with 
more societies for the cultivation of literature, science 
and the fine arts." At the Felix Meritis, lectures are 
delivered and dissertations read on all subjects, and 
it is said to be a most admirable society for the 
encouragement of every branch of art, science and 
literature, of physics, music (and they also give 
concerts), and even commerce and poHdcal economy. 

We saw on the streets the neat, quaint costume 
of the girls from one of the numerous orphanages, 
consisting of white ruffled caps and long white 
aprons, and we thought that, with their ruddy 
cheeks, they looked both happy and pretty. 

The banks of the millionaires of this city, like 
those of the Rothschilds and others elsewhere, were 
in plain old buildings, and two of them that we 
visited were in the back rooms of the basements of 
the proprietors' residences, with no sign or indication 
that a banking institution whose yearly transactions 
amounted to millions was there. We rang the bell at 
the front door of the dwelHng, telling our Dutch driver 



256 Haarlem. 

that we were sure he had brought us to the wrong 
place; but he insisted upon our going in, and so 
we were shown into the basement by a servant. 
There we found one small room, which answered 
for the counting-room, in which were seated six or 
eight clerks, busy with their pens, and a private 
room besides, looking out upon the grounds in the 
back yard, where were beautiful flowers and plants. 

The route to the Hague leads through Haarlem, 
whence for so many years we have received the 
bulbs which have made our gardens and grounds 
so rich in beauty, from hyacinths, tulips, etc., in 
early spring. One horticulturist exports annually 
three hundred thousand crocuses, one hundred thou- 
sand hyacinths and one hundred thousand ranun- 
culuses, besides other flowers. 

Ten miles from the Hague is Leyden, a place 
which interests us greatly, as well as Amsterdam, 
from its connection with the Pilgrim Fathers. It 
will be remembered that the English Separatists, as 
they were then called (now Congregationalists), were 
driven out of England and went to Amsterdam and 
Leyden in 161 1, and established a church at the 
latter place, under the care of John Robinson, its 



The Hague. 257 

first minister. On the spot where he then hved a 
large building was afterward erected, in the seven- 
teenth century, by John Pesyn, of the Reformed 
Walloon Church, for the benefit of the old people 
of his congregation. In 1864 a monumental stone 
was placed on the front of the house by some 
American Congregationalists, with the following 
inscription : " On this spot lived and died John 
Robinson, 1611-1625." 

At the Hague, one of the prettiest and pleasantest 
places in Holland, arches were being erected and 
grand preparations made in all the public squares 
and parks, and in front of the public buildings, 
palaces, private dwellings, etc., for a splendid fete 
on the 31st (August, 1878), in honor of the marriage 
of Prince Hendrek of Holland, who resides here, to 
Princess Maria of Prussia. The European people 
appear to delight in such grand displays in favor of 
royalty, and the expense and enthusiasm on such 
occasions seem unbounded. The present king of 
Holland is William HI., and here is his chief 
palace. The Hague is the capital of Holland, and 
the two chambers of Parliament (the States General) 
hold their assemblies in the Binnenhof. The building 
17 



258 Dutch Feasant Girls. 

is irregular, and dates back for centuries. It was 
here, in front of the steps, that the great Barneveldt, 
in 1619, laid down his head on the block, and, 
while he exclaimed : " Christ shall be my guide ; O 
Lord, my Heavenly Father, receive my spirit ! " at 
a single blow, it was severed from the body. 

We obtained a carriage early to drive about the 
city, and noticed that in front of almost every house 
of prominence could be seen the clean, tidy, blonde 
house-girl, with her white apron and white ruffled 
cap and wooden shoes, scrubbing the pavement — 
not on her knees, however, but in a bending atti- 
tude; while everything, even to the streets them- 
selves, was as clean as the inside of the houses. 
All the servant-girls in Holland seem to dress in 
this way. We found the market full of them, wear- 
ing on their heads only these ruffled white caps, 
but with no sign of a bonnet to be seen on one of 
them. The Dutch peasant or village girls, when 
you encounter them upon the road, always have a 
cheerful " Good-day " for you, and if you have com- 
panions they will change their greeting from " Goeden 
dag," in the singular, to the plural salutation of " Dag 
drei" if there are three, and "Dag vier " if there are 



Antwerp. 259 

four, — that is to say, " Good-day to the three of 
you," " Good-day to the four of you," and " Dag 
zamen," which means " Good-day together," if there 
are but two. Sometimes a roguish boy (there are 
such in every country) wdll salute a traveler who is 
going along with a donkey or dog with his " Dag 
zamen." But we must not grudge people their 
harmless joke. 

We had the pleasure of visiting some private 
galleries, and the attendant took great pride in 
pointing out to us the cattle paintings of Paul 
Potter, and also pictures by Rubens, Rembrandt, 
etc., and, indeed, a gallery without specimens of 
some of the fine old Flemish masters would hardly 
be considered a complete one. The collection of 
paintings in the Royal Museum is chiefly by artists 
of the Dutch school. The chef-d'' ceuvre of Paul 
Potter, the " Young Bull," so world-renowned, is in 
this gallery, and the staid burghers of The Hague 
seem to think this to be glory enough for one city. 

Antwerp, through which we pass on our way to 
Brussels, is the commercial capital of Belgium. It 
is a most interesting town, as all these Dutch towns 
are, with their narrow, ancient streets, where you 



2 6o The Cathedral atid its Paintings. 

see the Flemish peasants with their antique head- 
gear, and everywhere around you the great old- 
fashioned mansions, lofty-gabled and quaint-looking 
enough. Here was the birthplace of several of the 
greatest painters of the Low Countries, notably 
Van Dyck, the two Teniers — and others, and all 
about one seems to breathe an atmosphere of art. 
But the Cathedral is the great place of attraction 
to all visitors. Its spire, four hundred and four 
feet high, is one of the finest we have seen in 
Europe, and its sculptured tracery is so exquisite 
" that Charles V. said it deserved to be kept in a 
glass case"; while Napoleon compared it to Mechlin 
lace. The Antwerpers are proud of the magnificent 
pictures that adorn the interior of this church. 
"The Descent from the Cross," by Rubens, is one 
of the noblest efforts of art in existence, and there 
are fourteen choice paintings beside, called the 
"Saints of the Passion," illustrative of the scene of 
the Crucifixion. Another great picture by Rubens, 
" The Assumption," was said to have been painted 
in sixteen days at the rate of a hundred florins a 
day, that being his fixed price for work — a some- 
what more moderate charge than lesser artists of the 



Public Parks. 261 

present day demand. There are a great many other 
valuable pictures here — in all, estimated at three 
hundred — more, perhaps, than any other church on 
the Continent can exhibit. How these old painters 
could accomplish so much is indeed a wonder. 

All these quaint, beautiful towns in Holland have 
in their centers large and beautiful parks, which 
everybody, rich and poor, can easily reach. At The 
Hague, when I got up in the morning and looked 
out of the window of my room at the hotel, I saw 
a herd of about twenty deer quietly feeding in 
William's Park, a pleasure-ground adorned with villas, 
monuments and statues. Says a Dutch author: 
"The Hague has a tree, a flower and a bird for 
each of its sixty thousand inhabitants." There are 
scarcely any side-walks in Dutch and Flemish towns. 
The streets are narrow, and horses, vehicles and 
pedestrians fill up the roadway, and the hack-driver 
continually cracks his long whip as a warning for 
the foot-passengers to get out of the way. The 
houses are four or five stories in height, and many 
are extremely old-fashioned in appearance, and look, 
as you pass along the streets, as if they were about 
to topple over and fall upon you, they are so out 



262 Brussels. 

of the perpendicular — owing, I suppose, to the 
foundation of piles having given way; for the ground 
is here so low and marshy that the houses are all 
built on piles driven closely together into the soil. 
Most of the house windows in the city are provided 
with little side mirrors, so hung that by means of 
them the inmates can see all that takes place on 
the streets without being seen themselves, and all 
the houses are so constructed that the lower portions 
can be hermetically closed in case of an inundation, 
as there is a possibility of such a catastrophe from 
high tides of the sea coming up the canals that 
permeate all the streets. 

Brussels, the capital of Belgium, has lost the 
primitive style which so many of the other towns 
retain, and has become a second Paris. It possesses 
some very fine buildings, especially the Hotel de 
Ville (or City Hall), a magnificent structure. I 
ascended the tower and obtained a fine view of the 
city. This tower is one of the most splendid speci- 
mens of Gothic architecture I have seen. As in all 
these cities, here, also, there are large, spacious 
parks, with fountains and statues, the principal one 
of which is the great resort for the fashionable world 



Manufacture of Lace. 263 

on Sunday afternoons, when a military band plays 
for the entertainment of the thronging promenaders. 
Music is a great feature of enjoyment all over the 
Continent. I wish heartily that we also had some 
arrangement for music in front of our State House, 
where the people of the city could resort after 
the labors of the day, and enjoy themselves in the 
cool of the evening. 

No one should visit Brussels without seeing the 
lace-makers. The ladies at home all know some- 
thing about Brussels lace, but perhaps a little infor- 
mation in regard to the intricacies of its manufacture 
would be interesting. We saw some of the female 
operatives at work on a Valenciennes lace scarf, 
which took nine hundred little spindles or bobbins, 
and on a lace parasol which required seven thousand 
spindles, and the skill with which the workers 
handled them was wonderful. The women looked 
poor and haggard, as they bent intently over their 
absorbing and delicate tasks. All the beautiful little 
figures are wrought by hand, and each girl has her 
separate piece to do. Some of the young girls wore 
glasses, and held their work near to their eyes, as 
if their eyesight were already affected by their too 



264 Ma7mfacfure of Lace. 

close application. The lace-makers each receive a 
name from the work assigned them. The Platteiises 
are those who work the flowers separately, and the 
Faiseuses de point a Vaiguille work the figures and 
ground together. The St?iquese is the worker who 
attaches the flowers to the ground, while the Faneuse 
works her figures by piercing holes or cutting out 
pieces of the ground. The spinning of the fine 
thread used for lace-making in the Netherlands is 
an operation demanding so high a degree of minute 
care and vigilant attention that it does not seem 
possible ever to supplant the hands of women by 
machinery. The finest of this point lace is made 
in damp, under-ground cellars, for its fiber is so 
extremely delicate that it is liable to break by 
contact with the air above ground. This continual 
working under-ground has, as might be expected, an 
injurious effect upon the health, so that the workers 
here command good prices in order to induce them 
to follow this branch of their occupation. The girls 
in the other departments, however, are allowed to 
take their work home and sit in the window or 
under the shade of the trees, or even in the parks, 
where we saw some of them working, and where, 



Return to Paris. 265 

also, they were liable to be interrupted by the gay 
young Belgian soldier, trying to divert their attention 
by his winning smiles, and sometimes not without 
success. It is curious to see these operatives in 
groups, with their lace pillows, making every species 
of this delicate fabric, while enjoying the fresh air 
and bright light away from their own darker places 
of abode. 

Milk is carried about the city here in little carts 
drawn by large Newfoundland dogs, and the quaint, 
neat dress of the girls dealing it out, and the bright, 
silvery cans, incline one to stop and take a draught 
of the milk, which we feel sure must be both clean 
and creamy. 

Waterloo is not far from this city, and the great 
crowd of English tourists to the Exposition at Paris 
take this famous battle-ground in their route; but I 
had not the same cause for interest as they, and so 
did not visit the locality (for in only a few days 
more I hope to be on the ocean, "homeward 
bound "). 

On my return to Paris I found it more beautiful 
and attractive than ever, and the streets and boule- 
vards still Crowded with visitors to the Exposition, 



2 66 American Artists Abroad. 

from every part of Europe and the world. I visited, 
at the kind invitation of Mr. Bierstadt, several of 
the studios of prominent French artists, and one in 
particular, that of Miss E. J. Gardner, an American 
lady, a pupil of Bouguereau, who has been here 
twelve years and has gained a high reputation as 
an artist, all her paintings being quickly taken up 
by Goupil even before they are finished. I saw in 
her studio, yet unfinished, two original paintings, 
"The Infant Moses on the Nile," and another 
whose scene is taken from Whittier's poem, " Maud 
Muller," and which is spoken of by leading artists 
here and American correspondents to New York 
papers with high commendation. On Sunday the 
Exposition is crowded with working people and 
their families. A good-looking woman, however, one 
can hardly see among them, they appear so worn 
and haggard. On this day the English and Ameri- 
can departments are closed. Curtains are drawn 
over the cases, of jewelry, etc., and the machinery is 
stopped and covered up, and no one is seen about 
them except the visitors, inquiring, " What does it 
mean ? " They are told : " Because it is Sunday ; 
they keep Sunday in England and America, and 



American Representatives. 267 

people do not work on that day, but go to church 
or stay at home and rest." They think that those 
must be queer countries, where people do not have 
a holiday on Sunday, and go to the cafes and parks 
and have a good time. It is said that Americans 
are taking possession of Paris, and that there are 
thirty-five thousand here, either residing permanently, 
or visiting the city, or in business. Professor Jonek- 
bloet (a resident of The Hague), who is the Com- 
missioner from Holland to the Exposition here, and 
was also Commissioner to our Centennial Exposition 
at Philadelphia, in referring to Mr. Welsh, our 
Minister to the Court of St. James, spoke in the 
highest terms of his reputation in England, and also 
remarked at a public table in my presence that the 
United States was never better represented abroad 
than now, with Ministers Welsh at London, Noyes 
at Paris, Bayard Taylor at Berlin and Marsh at 
Rome, etc. His association with the commissioners 
from the different countries and his own personal 
knowledge of the men gave him an opportunity for 
forming an adequate judgment. Governor Noyes 
and Hon. John Welsh live in a style worthy of the 
great republic; not like kings and some foreign 



268 Europea7i Hotels. 

embassadors, of whom one would judge, from their 
palaces and extravagant outlay on everything that 
pertains to them, that the world was made for royalty 
and them alone, and that the poor people had 
nothing to do but to minister to their wants. Think 
of the King of Italy — poor as that country is — 
having half a dozen palaces as large as our new 
Hospital for the Insane, and costing each ten times 
as much. And think, also, of the numerous palaces 
occupied by Queen Victoria, equally expensive, and 
of the amount appropriated each year by the Eng- 
lish Parliament for the Queen and her family — how 
enormous it is; probably several millions of dollars 
yearly ! Mindful of these things, we feel we have 
been long enough in Europe, and have seen suffi- 
cient to cause us to love our own country and its 
institutions, and cherish them more than ever. 

We could not help noticing how much less it 
costs to run hotels in Europe than in America. I 
think enough is wasted in our hotels at home to 
amply supply the tables here. At breakfast in the 
morning, you are asked if you will be at ^^ table 
d^hote (meaning the dinner at half-past six p. m.), 
and thus prepared beforehand as to the quantity 



Ew'opean Hotels. 269 

required, the different dishes of meat are served at 
the dinner-table cut up in small pieces, and generally 
but just enough to go around; and if a person more 
than they have calculated for should come in, 
the waiters are -obhged to go back to the cook 
for more. At dessert, if peaches or any other fruit 
were served, there would be just one for each. 
When you go to a hotel your first business is to 
engage a room, for which you pay so much a day, 
according to location — say from thirty-six to eighty 
cents a day for a single room. You think that it is 
cheap, and that your expenses will not be great; 
but when your bill is presented, which is always in 
writing, you have a long string of items, as follows : 
room, meals, attendance, soap, candles, etc., whether 
you use them or not; and when you leave, an army 
of waiters expect to be remembered. When you 
understand this, it is all right ; but it seems odd 
enough to us Americans at first. 

The question is often asked us in Europe, espe- 
cially in Paris, " Do you have opera in America ? " 
When answered that we do, the reply was, " We 
could not live without the opera." It was a surprise 
to us to learn that Government builds, to a large 



270 The Grand Opera. 

extent, the opera-houses, and furnishes a generous 
support to them. From a report of the Chairman 
of the Government Committee on the Opera, we 
learn that the Grand Opera House of Paris is the 
most costly and splendid in the world, reminding 
one of the fabulous palaces in the tales of the 
Arabian Nights. To make room for it, one hundred 
and forty-seven houses were demolished. Its cost was 
thirteen millions of dollars. This magnificent edifice, 
begun by the late Napoleon, was fifteen years in 
process of erection, and is the property of the State. 
A manager is appointed by the Government, who 
receives a subsidy of one hundred thousand dollars 
annually to maintain the opera. Besides this, he 
receives, for his own services, a salary of five thou- 
sand dollars, with one thousand dollars additional 
for house-rent and another thousand for carriage 
expenses. Expenditures for new scenery, new music 
and other necessary outlays are defrayed also by the 
State. Everybody in Paris who can afford it attends 
the opera, for here truly it can be enjoyed in its 
utmost perfection. The cost to the State of mounting 
the various operas, as by the report of M. Tronst, is : 
"La Juive," $38,000; "La Favorita," $23,000; 



J Vine - Drink'mg. 271 

"William Tell," $28,000; "Hamlet," $30,000; " Les 
Huguenots," $34,000 ; " Faust," $39,000 ; " Don 
Giovanni," $38,000; "Robert le Diable," $38,000; 
" Le Prophete," $35,000; " L'Africain," $60,000. 
Then there are many other theaters, also, that are 
patronized and assisted by the State. 

Everybody here drinks wine, and Americans 
readily fall into the habit, on account, as they say, 
of the water. The water, however, is good, and we 
did not hesitate to drink it freely. But Americans, 
no doubt, like the wine better than the water, and 
are glad of an excuse for indulging in it. We met 
a prominent clergyman from New England at dinner 
one day, and he and his friend had their wine. 
When he noticed that my friend and myself were 
the only ones at table that had not wine-bottles 
before them, he said by way of apology that the 
water in Paris was so miserable it made him ill ; 
but after that we noticed that the water w^as good 
enough. Our waiters at table would hand us the 
wine-list, and when we decHned it, would throw up 
their hands in surprise and say, " What ! no wine, 
no beer, no whiskey ? " 

The consumption of beer and wine and absinthe 



272 Intemperance in Fi'ance. 

is said to be on the increase in France. From 
reports to the Government, the annual quantity 
of wine drank is thirty gallons to each inhabitant. 
The consumption of beer has increased threefold 
and other spirits fifty per cent, during the last twenty 
years. I do not remember to have seen a man 
intoxicated in Paris, and there is no drunkenness in 
France compared with that in England. " You 
never see a drunken man in France" can, however, 
no longer be said, and Americans who have been 
there within three or four years past observe a 
difference between what is now and what has been 
in this respect. Parisians account for it because of 
the high duty paid on wines at Paris, and the 
consequent manufacture of bad brandy, which has 
come into common use among the working classes. 
The close connection between alcohol and disease 
and vice is shown by the increase of accidental 
and violent deaths, of mortality generally, and like- 
wise of crime. 



XX. 

Paris Workingmen .... Their Social Character . . . Pecul- 
iarities OF Domestic Life National Faults and 

their Origin Sunday as a Holiday Musical 

Societies; their Popularity and Management. 

Paris, France. 

THE true Parisian workman, although an under- 
paid individual compared with his more fort- 
unate fellows in our own country, is nevertheless a 
merry, Hght-hearted being — trusting in no providence 
but his own right arm, and receiving both the good 
and evil of this life with a strange kind of philosophy 
drawn from the writings of Montaigne and Voltaire, 
whose rules are known only to himself. 

Receiving a good, sound education from the 

State (something beyond the primary three R's), 

that will aid him to become a thorough workman 

in his trade, or an employer of others should his 

1 8 273 



274 Parisian Worhjien. 

industry and good fortune raise him to that position, 
he is able to discuss with great clearness (and often 
talent) questions not for the moment intimately 
connected with his every-day life; in fact, I have 
heard metaphysical subjects propounded by these 
ouvriers which, though founded perhaps on a wrong 
basis, made them for the moment difficult to 
confute. 

Politics are, however, con amove, their great subject 
and fo7ie, and had they but a little more stability 
of character and truer governors and leaders of the 
people, they would have long since joined with our own 
country in showing to the world that republicanism 
is alone the only true and lasting government, bring- 
ing peace and liberty in its train, and prosperity 
with happiness to those who own its sway. 

Living with his wife or mistress in some small 
lodgment on the fifth or sixth story, to take stock 
of the furniture and belongings of the Paris v/orking- 
man is not a long or intricate operation. The old 
wooden bedstead, covered with spotless white; an 
old-fashioned buffet, on which are placed with neat- 
ness a few well-thumbed books and other heirlooms, 
cherished with care; the plain, deal table; the 



Paris ia7i Workmen. 275 

simple washstand, whose accessories would shock 
the delicate requirements of a modern belle, — these 
are his possessions, not much in value, but dear by 
the scanty earnings of poverty and many a pleasing 
association; while on the snowy walls, flanked by 
the various necessaries of the cidsine, a few sketches 
done in crayon, the product of his youthful industry 
and plodding hand, and which ever remind him, as 
he looks upon them, of the smile that lit his 
mother's labor-furrowed visage as with boyish glee 
he bore them home — a trophy of the prize from 
the generous hand of the kindly Mai re / 

An old violin completes our list, which, in its 
time, has oft — like Goldsmith's flute — called forth 
the village lads to dance, soothed and assisted by 
the ripple of the passing Loire; and still has it 
music in its ancient bosom, and in its loving 
master's hands yields forth many a gay and heart- 
touching melody. 

Starting at daylight to his toil, the Parisian of 
the working classes labors without intermission, 
excepting the occasional interval demanded by the 
indulgence of his cigarette, until the midday meal. 
This is usuafly composed of bouillon (or thin soup), 



276 Sunday as a Holiday. 

followed by the meat from which it is made, and 
after that perhaps a salad. A considerable quantity 
of bread is always consumed during this meal, and 
the whole is washed down by a chopine or pint of 
wine. 

The evening repast is very similar to that of 
noon, occasionally varied on fete days by the addi- 
tion of a simple dessert; while the following hours 
are whiled away as each one's individual taste may 
lead them — either in a free night-school, a concert, 
the theater, or in any of the current costless amuse- 
ments which Paris gives her children, or even, if he 
so prefers, at the establishment of a marchand de 
vins, where he can play lengthy games of cards, 
lasting the whole evening, at the expense of a few 
sous. 

They are not a drunken race, and it is rare 
(excepting, at times, on pay-day) to meet many 
intoxicated oiivriers on the streets. 

Sunday is their great holiday. Then, arrayed in 
a variety of costumes, such as only Frenchmen 
wear, or in the uniform cap and blouse, they sally 
forth, attended by their connaissance^ to seek in the 
environs of Paris fresh air and the amusements 



Natio7ial Faults and Vzrtties. 277 

suited to their inclinations. There is one pursuit 
which is exceedingly popular among them, which 
would have deHghted the heart of Ike Walton, 
though it might also have excited his wonder at 
their modus opera?idi, and that is — fishing! for, you 
may see them lining the banks of the Seine by 
hundreds, waiting with patience until it may please 
some unaccountably deceived member of the finny 
tribe to nibble at their bait; and, moreover, always 
good-humored, witty and poUte are they to those 
who may wish to converse with them. 

Such are the men who, in this short sketch, I 
have endeavored to portray to you. That their 
faults are many, I do not deny, but they are the 
result of the evil training and vile misgovernment 
that centuries of despotism have imposed upon 
them. Their virtues are their own, and will repay 
with pleasant experience any lover of human 
character who, leaving the vicious and Pinchbeck 
Paris life, cares for a moment to cultivate the 
acquaintance of her working sons. 

Among the many amusements which abound in 
this city to allure the workman after his day's labor, 
none are so worthy of commendation as the societies 



278 Musical Societies. 

formed for choral and instrumental music. These 
societies, composed of bands of young men, count 
from thirty to one hundred members, who elect 
from among themselves their secretary and treasurer, 
choosing generally for president and vice-president 
some willing citizen who possesses both a generous 
heart and an ear for music. The position of Chef 
(which is an onerous one and commands implicit 
obedience) is usually filled by some retired army 
band-master, or, in the case of choral societies, by a 
decayed public singer. They are in the custom of 
meeting once a week to practice in some convenient 
spot, which may be a commodious room in the case 
of the more opulent societies, or the cellar beneath 
a cafe' with those of humbler means. The subscrip- 
tion paid by each member — one franc per month— 
is devoted to the purchase of music, paying the 
conductor of the band, and to other incidental 
expenses. Each member provides his own instru- 
ment. At length, after diligent practice during the 
first winter and spring months following their forma- 
tion, the long-expected day arrives when, marshaled 
behind their virgin banner, they sally forth to some 
concours, fervently hoping that a medal will reward 



Musical Societies. 279 

their diligence and trial, to reflect back the sun's set- 
ting rays on their homeward march. Several of these 
societies — of which there are some two hundred and 
fifty in Paris — have gained from forty to seventy of 
these medals. These are always displayed on their 
banner in their jovial processions, borne with harm- 
less pride by some non-playing member, delegated 
for that purpose. On arriving at the conconj's, each 
society plays and sings in turn a selection of music 
before the judges, consisting of celebrated composers, 
who give their services on these occasions gratu- 
itously. The various medals are then distributed 
according to merit, without favor or partiality, and 
it is worthy of record that there is never any ques- 
tion as to the justice of the decision. At the end 
of the year, a dinner and ball are given by the 
societies to their friends of either sex, where it 
would seem that Mirth, never a respecter of persons, 
has abandoned for the nonce the richer saloons of 
the great to take up her abode with the humbler 
followers of the sweetest of the Muses. 

While in Paris, I talked with an intelligent man 
in my employ at the Exposition, and gathered the 
above facts in regard to Parisian workmen. We 



28o The '■^ Lower Classes T 

often hear a great deal about the higher classes of 
society in Paris, and but very little about the great 
masses of those whose daily toil is hidden in the 
obscurity of their lives — men who, miscalled the 
lower classes, are in fact the muscle and sinew of 
every land, and in whose honest or perverted train- 
ing lies the future of their country's destiny; and 
so I thought that a letter about these Paris laboring 
men could not but prove interesting to every citizen 
of a country like our own. 




XXI. 

Stratford-upon-Avon .... Shakespeare's House Relics 

OF the Poet still Existing. . . .Tomb and Epitaph in 
the Church of the Holy Trinity. 

Stratford-tcpon-Avon. 

ON our way home from London to Liverpool 
we made a detour to the home of Shake- 
speare, at Stratford-upon-Avon, his birthplace and 
burial-place. The first thing that attracted our 
attention, on stopping at the depot, was an omnibus 
with a prominent sign on it, reading " Shakespeare 
Hotel." We must, of course, go to the Shakespeare, 
where they showed us a room that the poet used to 
lodge in, whilst they also claim that the hotel itself 
is over four hundred years old. We first called at 
an odd, antiquated-looking building, where his father 
was living in 1552, and where in 1564 the bard 



282 Shakespeare. 

himself was born. We were cordially received by two 
aristocratic, intelligent-looking maiden ladies, who 
showed us through the apartments, pointing out the 
room in which he was born, where he studied and 
wrote several of his most matured and original 
dramas, where his father stored his wool (for he was 
a wool stapler), etc., etc., explaining minutely every- 
thing of interest in each. Much that is said about 
Shakespeare is legendary or imaginative; for the 
facts in regard to his early life have to be gathered 
from scanty sources. So little in reality is known 
of his history, that, not many years ago, a book 
was written by a highly cultured lady claiming him 
to be a myth, and that the immortal dramas attrib- 
uted to him were mainly the production of Lord 
Bacon ; and it is a well-known historical fact that of 
the scanty records we have of his life not all can be 
rehed upon as absolutely trustworthy, and that such 
charges as that upon which he was apprehended 
and brought before Sir Thomas Lucy, — deer steal- 
ing, — with other trivial anecdotes more or less 
reflecting upon the stability of his moral poise in 
earlier years, have at least a doubtful origin, and 
must be taken with a grain of salt. That Shake- 



His Character. 283 

speare, like all strong and original characters, especially 
those of a poetic and imaginative cast, was full of 
wild impulse and caprice, may be reasonably sup- 
posed; but that the innate nobleness breathed 
throughout his works and demonstrated in the Httle 
that we actually do know of him must also have 
been predominant in his character from his earliest 
youth, is equally evident — so much so as to make 
us feel assured that, however eccentric he may pos- 
sibly have been, nothing ignoble, mean or vicious 
ever stained his character or mingled with his life. 
His early marriage is but another proof of this. 
With a boy's enthusiasm he loved a woman older 
than himself. Tradition says she was beautiful, and 
we can imagine the young poet hastening with 
impatient footsteps through the lovely paths that 
led to the romantic cottage of Anne Hathaway, 
when love and nature and the dawning gleams of 
his youthful imagination were alike leading him to 
that happy goal of wedded life which he subse- 
quently enjoyed, and to those higher elevations of 
poetic fame and success on whose utmost heights 
the world has forever stationed him. 

In regard to that early marriage, Mary Cowden 



284 Shakespeare. 

Clarke, one of Shakespeare's most elegant comment- 
ators, thus happily writes : " From the uniformly 
noble way in which Shakespeare drew the wifely 
character, we may feel certain of the esteem as 
well as affection with which his own wife had 
inspired him. * * # 'Y\\q very slendemess of 
what is known concerning her is one tacit but 
significant proof of the worth of Shakespeare's wife 
and of the integrity of the feeling which bound 
him to her — for those women of whom least is 
heard are ofttimes the best of their sex; while 
the poet's silence respecting his affection witnesses 
its wealth by his own lines : 

' That love is merchandiz'd, whose rich esteeming 
■ The owner's tongue doth publish everywhere.'" 

The inhabitants of Stratford resent with jealous 
zeal any expression of doubt in regard to all they 
tell you about the poet, and say : " If there be one 
spot in old, historic England sanctified by past asso- 
ciations, it is the cottage where the poet of the 
world passed his youth, where he wooed and won, 
and encountered the struggles of early life — the 



Aji Old Portrait. 285 

birthplace of William Shakespeare, who by his ripe 
intellectual fullness has proved himself to be a poet, 

'Not for an age, but for all time.'" 

No one lives in the Shakespeare house; no fire 
or hght is permitted to be taken into it, and we 
noticed that it was heated by hot-water pipes coming 
from a neighboring tenement. To us the most 
interesting thing in the house, among the portraits 
of the bard which adorn its walls, was an old 
painting in oil, which has been restored, the history 
of which is very interesting, giving him the Saxon 
features instead of the dark Southern or Italian 
ones that we notice in all his other portraits. In 
this picture his hair is light and his face broad, 
with the good old Saxon look, and the ladies were 
enthusiastic in the declaration that this was the only 
true likeness — "it was so English it must be the 
true one." 

There is not, however, sufficient evidence of the 
genuineness of this portrait to permit us to pro- 
nounce authoritatively in the matter. It was acci- 
dentally discovered some twenty years ago by a 
restorer of pictures, while on a visit from London 



286 Shake spea7'e. 

to Stratford, who, on removing an outside coat of 
paint which had been appHed to it by some other 
hand than that of the original artist, brought to 
view a hkeness strikingly similar to the Stratford 
bust, and with many points of resemblance to the 
Droeshout print. Like most of the other well- 
known likenesses of the bard, it presents the Hnea- 
ments of a nobly endowed man — one who must 
have been a shining, resplendent figure among his 
fellows. It exhibits the sturdy intellectual strength 
and physical vigor which distinguish the best of his 
portraits, and has qualities in common with each. 
The contour of the countenance, when closely 
examined, is found to strongly resemble the Chandos 
portrait and also the portrait by CorneHus Jansen, 
but lacks the airy grace and delicacy which distin- 
guish that exquisite work. 

The people here seem to Hve on the reputation 
which Stratford-upon-Avon enjoys as being the 
birthplace of Shakespeare, as thousands are thus 
drawn to visit the spot where one who is perhaps 
peerless among poets was born. A beautiful park 
has been laid out on the grounds where Shakespeare 
built his home, after the development of his wonderful 



Relics of the Poet, 287 

genius and his great success. These grounds are 
very charming, stretching down toward the Avon. 
Nothing now remains of the house except a few 
foundation-stones, which are surrounded by an iron 
fence, showing the care with wiiich the inhabitants 
preserve everything relating in any way to the poet. 
The one to whom the property descended having 
cut down some of the trees about the place, which 
Shakespeare himself had planted, the people became 
very much incensed, and so the proprietor, with true 
English arbitrariness, rather than be troubled with 
people calling to see the poet's home, and also to 
spite the inhabitants, tore the building down and 
moved away, and now, alas ! only these few founda- 
tions remain to be seen. The ancient grammar- 
school building where he was educated still exists, 
and the old desks remain as in the poet's days. A 
school is still held there, where boys are educated, 
expecting, no doubt, to catch something of the 
genius of Shakespeare from the venerable walls and 
furniture. 

AVe visited the chapel of the Guild of the Holy 
Cross and St. John the Baptist, where he used to 
worship. It was erected in 1450, and is one of the 



288 Tomb and Epitaph. 

few objects in Stratford which appear now as they 
did to the eyes of Shakespeare. His tomb, erected 
under the north side of the chancel of the Church of 
the Holy Trinity before 1623, is noticed as you pass 
along between the old oaken pews, which are so 
curiously and grotesquely carved. We do not take 
much notice of anything about us, as we are wholly 
intent on seeing whatever may be connected with 
Shakespeare. We refer, of course, to the tomb of 
the poet himself. The grave-stones of the family lie 
in a row in front of the altar — that of his wife, 
Anne Hathaway, being situated beneath her hus- 
band's tomb, upon which are the four celebrated 
lines written by himself, as follows : 

" Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, 
to digg the dvst encloased heare : 

BlESTE be ye man YT SPARES THES STONES, 

And cvrst be he yt moves my bones." 
There is a traditionary story which says : " His 
wife and his two daughters did earnestly desire to 
be laid in the same grave with him, but that not 
one, for fear of the curse above said, dare touch 
his grave-stone." 

Stratford is an antiquated old English town, and 



A Poet for All Time. 289 

chiefly interesting from being connected with Shake- 
speare. Situated almost in the heart of England, and 
nearly equidistant from those palace-fortresses which 
his own writings have made grand in story — 
Kenilworth and Warwick — the scene of many a 
gorgeous pageant in the poet's life-time; surrounded 
by towns and battle-fields whose names the bard 
has rendered more glorious than history itself, 
Stratford-upon-Avon nevertheless is a place of sweet 
and rural simplicity. The curious traveler, leaving 
this shrine of a nation's heart, may wander at his 
will over the romantic sites of Naseby Field or 
Worcester, Edge Hill or Bosworth, or he may even 
visit the gray old streets of Coventry, through 
which the roystering Falstaff refused to lead his 
scarecrow phalanx, declaring, " I '11 not march through 
Coventry with them, that's flat ! " but amid all 
their varied points of interest, of romance or his- 
tory, none will be found equal to that which nearest 
touches the heart and influences the mind — to the 
one Mecca-like shrine in the cloistered aisle of the 
dim old church at Stratford, where repose the sacred 
ashes, undisturbed forever, let us hope, of " the 
foremost man of all the earth." 
19 



XXII. 

Conclusion: On the Atlantic. . . .Thoughts of Home. 

AFTER leaving Stratford-upon-Avon, we were 
- anxious to visit the splendid ruins of Kenil- 
worth Castle, in remembrance of Sir Walter Scott's 
novel of " Kenilworth " and the graphic description 
therein of the events which transpired in that splen- 
did medieval pile when Dudley received the visit 
of his sovereign, the great Elizabeth ; but we had to 
forego that pleasure, ardendy as we desired it, as 
our grand old steamer, the City of Berlin, was to 
leave Liverpool for New York the next day, and 
our passage was engaged. We passed through Bir- 
mingham on our way to Liverpool, and remained 
there over night. But much more time than this 
290 



Return to Liverpool. 291 

would be necessary in order to see the greatest 
manufacturing city of the world, and as our 
thoughts were too eagerly bent on home to be 
greatly interested in any other subject, we hastened 
on to Liverpool. On our arrival there we went at 
once to the office of the Inman Line, in order to look 
up the various boxes and packages of pictures and 
souvenirs which we had forwarded by express from 
Venice, Rome and Paris. Much to our disappoint- 
ment, some of the most valuable of them could not 
be found, although they were forwarded by express 
weeks before. The business of checking baggage, 
which has been so thoroughly systematized by us in 
America, has never been adopted in Europe, and, 
hence arise great confusion and inconvenience, 
trunks being thrown into the baggage-cars un- 
checked and simply marked with chalk, or having a 
paper pasted on with the name of the place of your 
destination ; and the consequence is that when peo- 
ple go to look for their baggage a general scramble 
ensues. The system of expressing goods, also, is 
not so well arranged as in the United States, and 
cannot be relied upon for promptness and efficiency 
as with us. Some of our packages, in fact, did not 



292 Homeward Bound. 

come to us until we had been weeks at home, de- 
priving us, therefore, of the pleasure of at once 
bestowing on our arrival the presents which we had 
purchased for friends whilst abroad. 

We are glad at length to get once more into our 
state-rooms, which had been reserved for us, and 
sing " Homeward Bound." Here we met quite a 
number of passengers who had come over with us, 
and it was truly interesting to listen to some of 
their experiences in travel, and hear them ask if 
we had visited such and such a place or seen such 
and such a thing, and if we had not happened to 
enjoy that privilege, they would exclaim : Why ! 
you have just missed the most desirable and won- 
derful view, or cathedral, or old ruin in all Europe ; 
I would never return to the United States without 
having seen it, etc. Then, again, we meet with 
those whom we had encountered on the Alps or at 
Rome, or Naples, or on the Rhine, and it was 
delightful to talk over with them our various expe- 
riences, every one being so well satisfied with their 
tour, and quite certain that they had seen more 
and had had a better time than anybody else. 
Some had been to Russia; some had traveled 



Traveled Americajis. 293 

through Scandmavia; and some had visited Spain 
or Portugal; and as we had been to none of these 
places, of course we " had missed so much." 
But we were satisfied that we had seen more, trav- 
eled further and packed away more knowledge for 
future use than any one of them ! It is a wonder 
how much the average American can pick up during 
a few months of travel abroad, and how glibly he 
can talk about cathedrals, paintings, sculpture and 
the " old masters." Some marvel that one can be 
so much interested in old ruins, mere piles of stone 
overrun with vines, as they consider them, never 
dreaming that the interest which they hold is not 
their present appearance alone, but the wonderful 
histories with which they are often connected. Others 
would say : " I spent all my time viewing galleries 
of painting or sculpture, as there are none such to 
be seen in the United States." But as for myself, 
I have rather endeavored to observe the thousands 
of commoner things that came daily under my 
notice — the social customs, methods of business, and 
all the ways and doings of the peoples of the differ- 
ent countries that I visited, the landscapes, also, and 
the cities so strange and quaint, and in such vivid 



294 Traveled America7is, 

contrast with those of our own country. Everywhere 
we met Americans (especially ladies) who felt them- 
selves free to say " that there was no culture in 
America." " / prefer," they would add, " to live in 
Paris or Florence, where one can gratify their 
aesthetic tastes " ; and oftentimes you would find 
these very people "murdering the King's English" 
in their attempts at conversation, and showing in 
various other ways their lack of true culture and 
refinement. A story was related to me of one of 
these cultured ladies, as follows : "In Venice are 
some winged lions, standing here and there upon 
the fa9ades of the principal buildings, and at other 
points, also, as imposing ornaments, or, as it is often 
put, St. Mark and the lions — St. Mark being the 
patron saint of the city and the lions being emblem- 
atical of the saint. A lady had traveled, and was 
again at home; some one said to her: 'And so you 
went to Venice? saw all the sights — St. Mark's and 
the lions ? ' ' Oh, yes, the dear old lions ! we were 
most fortunate the day we were there; arrived just 
in time to see the noble creatures fed ! ' " 

Our experience on our voyage home was about 
the same as on our passage over. I was often 



On the Atlantic. 295 

approached by passengers on board with the remark : 
" You are a good sailor." " Yes," I repHed, " I 
have not been sick an hour, and have eaten a good 
hearty meal whenever an opportunity offered." Oh, 
such deHghtful sea-breezes one gets walking the 
deck by moonlight, and breathing in the salt air 
from old ocean, thinking meanwhile of home and 
friends. Each day we counted the miles that we 
had made, and our hearts rejoiced as we came in 
sight of New York ; and as we steamed up through 
the Narrows into the beautiful harbor, it seemed as 
if, in all our travels, we had witnessed nothing more 
picturesque and lovely. As we approached the 
landing, all got out their opera-glasses to obtain the 
first glance at friends who were waiting on the pier 
to greet them on their return. You could hear 
people exclaim : " Oh, I see them ! I see them ! " 
And such a waving of handkerchiefs takes place, 
as in very foretaste of the joy that one experiences 
in meeting beloved friends face to face once more, 
after intervening months of absence. One and all 
had laid off their traveling garments, and the ladies 
in particular appeared in their silks and splendid 
suits, with cloaks of seal-skin and velvet, although it 



296 Arrival at New York. 

was still September. Such an array of diamonds 
^and precious stones I never had witnessed before. 
The gentlemen also had on their new suits and 
overcoats, and a better dressed company never 
landed in New York. Was this all to greet friends, 
and appear in gorgeous array, or was it to defy 
the Custom House officers and say to them: '-'This 
is my apparel, and is not therefore subject to duty"? 
All dread the Custom House officers, and every 
means is resorted to in order to deceive them. 
Trunks are overhauled, and all having goods liable 
to duty either must pay that duty or submit to 
having their trunks sent to the Custom House. 
My plan was already determined upon. T showed 
all my goods, with their invoices, and so was the 
first to get a release, which enabled me to hasten 
at once (and with eager alacrity) to the Pennsyl- 
vania Central Railroad office for home. 

If I may be pardoned, I should be glad to 
indulge a little local pride, and say that, in all 
my travels, I have not seen so prosperous and 
thrifty a city as my own city of Columbus, Ohio, 
nor, for its size, any place so attractive in public 
buildings of masterly design and splendid work- 



Thoughts of Home. 297 

manship. The old State House, with its Doric style 
of architecture, massive and grand, is a noble 
structure, and if the dome were remodeled so as 
to render it symmetrical with the other parts of 
the building, surrounding it with columns, as has 
been suggested, it would challenge the criticism of 
the world. Our Hospital for the Insane is the 
largest of any yet erected, and all of our public 
buildings — the Idiot Asylum and those for the 
Blind, Deaf and Dumb, the Ohio State University 
and the Penitentiary — are certainly, considering their 
cost, equal, for style of architecture, to any in the 
world, and would attract the attention of all who 
are competent to judge in the matter. 



THE END. 



20 



APPENDIX. 

In the account of our visit to the home of Bums, given in the fifth 
chapter, we refer to a letter which one of his nieces had read to General 
Grant — a letter written by the poet to a younger brother, recommending 
him to cultivate a reticent spirit. This letter was subsequently copied and 
forwarded to us by the poet's aged and venerable nieces, and, together with 
their kindly and cordial letter, is appended below : 

Bridge House, Ayr, 9th February, 1880. 
Dear Sir: 

Yours of the 6th January arrived all right. I regret being so 
long in answering it, but we meet with so many interruptions, 
you must excuse the delay. I have now got the letter of my 
uncle copied, and hope the post will not put off as much time 
as I have done in the m.atter. " It is from the poet, to his 
younger brother William." We were glad to hear you and your 
friend had enjoyed your visit to Scotland ; but the Americans 
seem all to do so, and we like them all the better for that. My 
sister joins in kindest regards. 

Yours, most sincerely, 

Isabella Burns Begg. 

Copy of an unpublished letter, the previous one referred to 
bears date March 2d, 1789 : 



Appendix. 299 

Isle Ellisland. 



Dear William 



In my last I recommended that invaluable apothem, Learn 
taciturnity. It is absolutely certain that nobody can know our 
thoughts ; and yet, from a slight observation of mankind, one 
would not think so. What mischiefs daily arise from silly gar- 
rulity or fooHsh confidence ! There is an excellent Scotch saying 
that "A man's mind is his Kingdom." It is certainly so; but 
how few can govern that kingdom with propriety. The serious 
mischiefs in Business which this Flux of language occasions do 
not come immediately to your situation ; but in another point of 
view, the dignity of the man, now is the time that will either 
make or mar you. Yours is the time of life for laying in habits ; 
you cannot avoid it, though you would choose ; and these habits 
will stick to your last sand. At after periods, even at so little 
advance as my years, 'tis true one may still be very short-sighted 
to one's habitual failings and weaknesses, but to eradicate or even 
amend them is quite a different matter. Acquired at first by 
accident, they by and by begin to be as it were convenient ; and 
in time are in a manner a necessary part of our existence. I 
have not time for more. Whatever you read, whatever you hear, 
concerning the ways and works of that strange creature man, 
look into the living world about you, look into yourself, for the 
evidence of the fact, or the application of the doctrine. 
I am ever yours 

Robert Burns. 

Addressed 

Mr. William Burns 
Saddler 

Longtown 

England. 



ir/4997 



, -' 




%'\^ 


v>' 


^/ ■ 


' 


V ^^ <0 


d 







^ 


^ -^ 




L 


^ 


-- 


•>^ 


0-^ 


= - 


^ 


.^^ 


^^ 





oo^ 







'^.,,xv 



.^' -/', 






N .■ . "-^^ 



\,^ 



-/■ 



-X' 












OO 



^>"' 




:^\ 


#'%l 

^,,>-.,;\. 



^. ' ^ . 


■ 














^ 


v'^' 


s "^ 






c^^^' ^^^ 


rP^"'' 


~"v> 


''- •^'^ 






= ^ 


c^"^- 






' .^' 


'^X. 
>' 








-^ 


'•'^; 




\ 


o 


-/ ^, 


. "; 


\^ - 1 ' 


-/' 


■■ 


■ 




/^ O- 








'? '--^ 




















~~ " - 




■-^ 


0^ 






o"^ 


■^ct: 






xV 




^//^' ^ ^ 


r-^- x^^-^ 






r;. 


\' \ 


._ "^ 


^-' / 


"-</ 








'^. 








'U 


..^^ ^ 






- ,s 


<:, 






. s" 


-^ 






o^^ 


^. 






- - V 












.'^' 






v\ ' -" 



,0o. 






^. ,^' 



-s.^ 



aV^- '^^, 



.s -o. 



^ .0- 






/ ^ .^ s ^ 



% 


.^' 


^^^ 


■^■, 



' .^^■^^' 



